No Questions Asked No Questions Answered
by lakemiller
Summary: Sorry it's taken so long to finally update this thing... I hope you all haven't lost complete interest in this story... I promise if you bear with me I will have the rest of this story up.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I own nothing except Rachel Corinthos and any other unknown characters I use.

**NO QUESTIONS ASKED NO QUESTIONS ANSWERED**

How do I tell the man i had a crush on how I felt, without getting my heartbroken...twice? ( I was kind of already in a relationship with somebody, but I'll get to that later.) This was all I could think about while I sat in my English class half listening to my professor, Mr. Moretalli, as he was explaining the modern day Shakespearean. There he sat to the right of me, two seats down and yet we hardly ever spoke to each other. Well, it was more liek we never talked to each other. He was the most amazing man I had ever seen, except for my brother adn Jason. He stood over six feet tall, he had dirty blonde hair, and the most exquisite deep green eyes. His name was unknown to me but I figured that if I could get him to talk to me then maybe he might say his name. I, Rachel Corinthos, was afraid to talk to a boy. Well...at least this boy didn't have any connections to the mob...I hoped.

My brother would kill me if he knew that I had been in a relationship with a boy who had ties to the five families. But what he doesn't know won't kill him. My brother was always getting on my case for dating guys I didn't know, especially those with ties to the _business_. You'll understand later what our _business_ is. My brother was Michael "Sonny" Corinthos, head of the five families in Port Charles, New York. Port Charles is a small town about an hour outside of New YorkCity, a town in which everybody knows everybody else, and if anything bad happens two of three people are usually blames. No matter if they did it or not. Thsoe people happen to be Jason Morgan, (whom you'll learn about later); Sonny and oh you'll never guess this one...ME. Yup that's right I said _me_. I've never been known as Sonny's little sister. Oh no, I was _not_ going to be known by that, I had to make a name for myself, even if it did mean jail time, but that was _never_ going to happen. At least not anytime soon.

Oh, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself, I'm Rachel Corinthos, and being that my brother is Sonny Corinthos, meant I could typically get away with murder. Maybe not murder...Okay maybe murder, but don't tell anyone. Mac Scorpio had it in for my family (okay that only consisted of my brother adn I but that didn't matter.) Mac Scorpio is District Attorney for Port Charles, and would like nothing more than to put the three of us away (most of the time for nothing) but that didn't matter we always kept our hands clean. We were the famous trio, and as much as everybody thought nothing could get in our way of protectingour territory, or the peopel we cared about; they were wrong. We always had somebody in our territory. Welcome or unwelcomed.

However, me being nineteen I thought nothing of it and made my own decisions. Our mother died when I was two and my father two years later, ever since then Sonny has been the only family I have known and loved. (Aside from my foster family.) Oh, then there is Jason, he is both my brother and my right hand man, and if we were needed or wanted anything done weusually went to him for it. Not only was he our right hand man, but he was also my best friend, he was always there for me when Sonny wasn't. For example, if I ever had a problem with a boy or a member of the fivefamilies hitting on me, Jason knew how to put them in their place. Not that I couldn't handle them myself, because believe me I could.

I had just returned to the Paris Towers five minutes ago; that was the name of the building we had lived in for a little over ten years. Sonny's penthouse was on the right and the penthouse I lived in was on the left when you got off the elevator. I decided to see if anybody was hoem at Sonny's; as I turned the corner to Sonny's I noticed that Derek wasn't at his post, that wasn't unusal but when I yelled he didn't appear. Now that...that was werid. he always showed up when you hollered for him. I placed my backpack on the floor next to the front door, then I opened the door unsure of what I might find...When I walked in everything seemed in palce, Michel's trucks weere on the floor in front of the couch adn Carly's keys where on the table where she always left them. I walked further into the house, hand on my gun just in case. I always carried a gun with me, and when I went to school it stayed in the car. I was somewhat expecting my nephew, Michel, to come running down teh stairs, but when he didn't appear I hollered into the house. It was a week before Christmas so I knew that they were suppose to be home they hadn't told me abouot any vacation plans and Sonny always made a point to invite me or tell me they were going someplace.

"Sonny? Carly? Michel? Jason? Is anybody home? Hello, anybody here?" I walked up teh stairs to find not only the bedrooms empty but also the nursery. Carly was eight months pregnant and could go into labor at any minute. (She never lasted beyong her eighth month.)

Beep. Beep. Beep. My cell phone was vibrating in my back pocket.

"Hello?" I asked as I half walk; half ran down teh stairs and out the door, picking up my bag on the way out as I raced across the hallway.

"Rachel. It's Jason. We need you to fly out to the island right now, its not safe for you." Jason somewhat yelled into the phone.

"Jason, slow down. Don't tell me it's not safe, you know taht ic an handle my own againstany one of the five families. What's going on anyhow, where are you?" Dumb question, since he had said coem to the island.

"It's not the five families, its Carly." My mind went into overdrive for concern taht something had happened. "She went into labor on the island. Sonny sent her and Michel to the island to make sure that Lorenzo couldn't get to them." Sonny usually sent Carly and Michel to the island when he didn't think he could protect them. Okay so now I wasn't so concerned. "Lorenzo was with her." Now I was concerned again."He wants nothing more then to destroy any part of teh family." Jason said, although I could tell soemthing was wrong. I hung up my phone and ran as fast as I could in to my penthouse, threw my bag on the couch and decided to pack.

As I ran up the stairs it dawned on me that nobody was home, my older sister, whom I had found out about less then a year ago, Courtney, was living with me. I pulled out my phone and dialed her number as fast as my fingers could go across the keypad.

"Hello." I heard the sweet sound of my sister on the other end of the phone.

"Courtney are you still in town?" I asked as I packed what clean clothes I could find into a small bag, flung it over my shoulder adn ran down the stairs, hoping she wouldn't ask too many questions.

"I'm at Kelly's Diner. Why what wrong? Has something happened to Jason or Sonny?" Courtney had a _thing_ for Jason and Jason one for her, but they were _not_ allowed by Sonnyto see each other. They didn't really care though they still saw each other and Sonny hated it.

"No, has Jason called you? Get over to teh house now, it's _business_ and you're not safe." When I said the word _business_ she knew that not only could I not tell her, but she understoof that it was big and I was not joking around. **Click**. Another sign that she understood, and she woudl ask _no_ questions. In the short time that it took her to get home, I had made arrangements for a car to be waiting outside and for the Corinthos-Morgan plane tobe ready when we got to the airport.

"Go upstairs and pack now. Make it quick." I said as adamantly as I could when she came causally walking through the door. Although Courtney was older then myself, she understood that i was more in charge if and whenSonny and Jason were out of town. Just as quickly as I had told her, she was back down the stairs suitcase in hand.

"Can you at least tell where we are going?" She was always careful with the questions she asked because she knew there were a couple of questions that were _off limits_ to both her and Carly. Like was the word_business_ meant.

**Bang! Bang! Bang!** The pounding on the door got louder and louder with everyhit.

"Courtney go down the back stairs and out to the car. I'll be down in five minutes and if I'm not leave without me." I whispered as sternly as I could, without giving it away that somebody was home.

I turned back around, pulledout my gun from the backside of my jeans.I walked quickly yet quietly towards the door, gun ready to fire. I looked through the peephole in the door, nobody was there. Iopened the door only four inches and yet it was enough to see that there was a package on my door stoup. Ok, it looked like a box for a cat except, it was ticking loudly. I ran as fast as I could and made it halfway down the back stairs whenI felt the stairs shake and yet I didn't stop or darelook back for Iknew exactly what had happened. I kept running until I was in the car with Courtney.

"Max. Drive!" Max was our bodyguard and driver when we needed it.

"what teh hell was that noise?" Courtney tried to get details from me but knew that if I didn't answer then she would not know until I was ready to tell her or unless it was very necessary for her to know. Other words everything was on a need to know basis for her and Carly. And they both knew it and yet some days that didn't stop them form asking the questions we couldn't answer, which they did every day.

I sat quiet for teh twenty-minute ride to the airport. In twenty minutes time I had completely forgotten about Courtney, who sat no more thenthree feetaway. I looked across the seat to where shesat. Courtney was athletic, storng, and very storngminded, plus she hated teh one word she couldn't ask questiosn about. Business. One thing about her that nobody understood was how she could so easily kick your ass, but yet at the same time she was so nice about it. At this moment though I couldn't read her expression and I was too afraid to ask for the fearthat she might want to know more then I was willing to tell her. I would later realize that her expression was a mix of sadness, curiosity, and wanting. I heard the engine shut off and Max climb out.

"Here we go. Courtney you ready?" I askedpicking up my purse.

"I guess, just as long as we're safe and nothing has happened to Jason. I guess I am all set." She said in a voice just above a whisper.

"Ladies." Max opened the door of the oversized SUV. I stepped out, then Courtney; we were met with the cold air of New York in December and January. There in front of us was the Corinthos-Morgan jet ready and waiting.

Courtney had on a pair of low rise hip-hugger jeans, a long sleeve green shirt that ended just after her belly button and if she moved just right you could see the diamond stud in her belly and the tattoo on her back. She alsohad on a pair of black knee high, heeled boots, and a long black dress coat. I, myself had something similar on, except that my shirt was white and a black metal piece of a .45 caliber police special shown from from under my had shoulder length, straight blonde hair, blue eyes, and she was afraid to tell Sonny about her tattoo. I, however, was unafraid to tell Sonny about my eaight tattoos and of the thirty-four piercings I had. (Don't worry none of them dirty.) I had sixteen in each ear, one in my eyebrow, and one in my belly button. I also had what soem people called a _mop_ of hair.It went down to the small of my back, it was dirty blonde, wavy and it was so thick that I usually just tied it up in a ponytail. Which was the way it was now.

We had been in the air less then ten minutes when my phone went off.

"Corinthos!" Depending on my mood, I either answered with my last name or hello. Right now I was in a mood where nobody wanted to mess with me.

"Where are you two?" Sonny's panic filled voice filled my ear. Something else had happened on the island that nobody was telling me about and I wanted to know what and why they hadn't told me.

"What's going Sonny? How did you know that Courtney was with me?" I always asked a hundred questions, except I didn't ask the one question I should have; which was " what happened that you haven't told me?."

"Courtney called Jason when you were still in the house. Rachel you should see the baby, he's beautiful. We name him Morgan Andrew Corinthos." Whenever anything good happene dto Sonny or anybody he loved, you coudl always tell because Sonny's voice was filled with power and love. This time something was missing because you could hear the love but the level of power was missing and that was a bad thing.

"Sonny. How is Carly? How about Michel is he okay?" Then all I heard was dead air; Sonny would hang up on me if I asked too many questions.

Courtney came back in carrying a tray of crackers, chips, sodas, and chocolate bars. Sonny hated when we didn't eat healthy food. I remember a time when Sonny walked in on me eating a bag of ships and drinking a soda as I cleaned the hosue. I started laughing as I remembered the look on his face.

"Yum, that looks so good." I commented on the food.

"The pilot said we'd be landing in an hour and a half. Do you want any?" She asked in a voice that said "tell me what the hell is going on."

"Yeah of course. have you ever known me to pass up anything with word chocolate in it?" I laughed when I saw the look on her face. For the next hour and a half we laughed and talked without giving another thought to anything or anybody else.


	2. Chapter 2

_Okay soI know that the first chapter was long and I am sorry for that except that when it was typed before it turned out to be something like 56 pages. The chapters are going to be long but they will pick up and be more interesting as you go. The first one was for introduction. Please review I need to know if I should contiune typing this again or if I should just stop, however, I'd like to keep typing. _

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except Rachel and a few other characters that come later in the story. ENJOY!**

_Okay so now on with the story. Jason is a little OOC sorry but that is how it is going to be for a little while anyways._

As we stepped of the palne we were met with the warm, salt air of Sonny's private island off the coast of Puerto Rico. The Corinthos family had money and we weren't afraid to to spend it of flaunt it.

"Hola, senor. Que hora es?" Spanishis my second language. Courtney was only half understanding what I was saying. She hadn't learned Spanish; Sonny adn I had intended to teach her but we hadn't gotten around to it yet.

"Son las cinco menos diez." The Spanish man replied.

"Thank you sir." I answered in English so Courtney could tell the conversation was over with.

"What did he say?" She asked very confused.

"He said it was ten of five." I answered her with a smile, trying not to laugh. "Come on lets see if we can get a ride. Wait I know. Come on." I said dragging Courtney behind me, I knew of a bike shop withing walking distance of the airstrip.

**"YOU ARE CRAZY! i CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE MY SISTER!"** Courtney had to yell over the sound of the Yamaha 356 XZ2, that I had rented. I couldn't help but laugh backat her. Riding had since become one of my favorite things to do sinceI had known Jason, I had even entered a couple of races against all guys and guess what? Iwn.

"End of the line." I said as I turned off the engine and hopped off. In front ofus stood a beautiful two and half story log cabin.

On one side of the house you see the ocean and smell the salt water; it wasn't as strong as it was back in New York, and that was a good thing. I looked back to thehouse all of the windows were open and teh shades were dancing in the light breaze that was dancing outside.

"Hello." I yelled into what seemed like an empty house.

"Up here." I heard a usually loud-mouth Carly softly yell from the bedroom on the second floor in which she was.

The room was beautiful, teh walls were painted white and in the middle of the room was a cherry wood, four-post bed covered floor to ceiling in black and red. Carly laid in the middle with baby Morgan in her arms, Jason adn Sonny were at her side where they belonged.I across to where Sonny sat adn I could have sworn he was crying.

"Do you want to hold him?" Carly asked.

"Um, not right now. Jase can I talk to you please?" I asked sternly, yet politely, not giving him time to respond I left the room, took off my boots and walked down to the beach andsat under a big beautiful coconut tree. The ocean always seemed to relax me in a way I wasn't use to.

"What's up? You should be happy." I felt Jason's arms wrap around my waist, a feeling of sadness and yet a feeling of safeness came over me. Jasonalways had that affect on me.

"I know I should be happy, but ight now I feel nothing but hatered. Lorenzo blew up the penthouse Jase. Everything is gone. No memories of my mother left." I started to shake which he knew meant I was crying. "When we were packing there were three pounds on the door, I told Courtney to go to the ccar and wait. When I opened the door nobody was there, exccept there was this box about teh size of a cat." Once again I began to shake only this time I couldn't stop. Jason pulled me closer to his body and he kept rocking me back and fourth until I calmed down a little.

"Shhhh. Baby it's okay." He said as he pulled my body tightly to his and started rubbing my back. "We will get him and when we do I'll let you put the first bullet in him. I promise." Jason never lied, soI knew he was going to let me. I just started to laugh.

"I haven't told Courtney, but she knows something happened. She's just not sure what." I turned around for teh first time to look him in the face. His enormous blue eyes where the first thing I saw, they were filled with love and hopefulness. His hand came up to brush away the tears still on my face.

"Jason I love you, you know that?" I don't think I had actually ever told Jason how I felt in all the years I had known him.

"You know? You know what?" He smiled, as I shock my head no. "I love you too. Now never forget that." I smiled up at him. "If things hurt you, they hurt me too." Even members of the mob have feelings. Usually I never let things like explosions scare me, but to me losing what I had left of my mother was heartbreaking.

"Come on, I'll go back with you and nobody will ever know you were crying. Besides, I have '_business'_ that needs taking care of." He smiled because he knew that I undertsood what the _business_ was. Having somebody take care of Lorenzo.

As he helped me to a standing position I caught sight of someone moving in the distance. As fast as I had stood up I had my gun in my hand and I was running after whoever it was. Boy, was I glad I had taken time to take my boots off, the sand had started to get wet. I fired one shot and prayed I hit my target. I looked over my shoulder to see if Jason had caught up to me, he had.

"Did ya hit him?" He asked, knowing full well I had never missed a shot in my life.

"Don't know, haven't checked. Come on let's go see who the asshole is." I smiled up at him; my day had gone from bad to great, because now I didn't have to wait to kill Lorenzo.

I hoped Lorenzo was the man I had shot, I didn't want or need any more problems. As I got closer to the body on the ground, I realized that killing Lorenzo would not be the way to get even. Oh who teh hell was I kidding, I loved the feeling I got when I knew that the people I hated were out of the way. I bent over the body, and the eyes that looked back were indeed those of Lorenzo, he wasn't dead but if I didn't do something he would be. Oh well. I shrugged off the thought. Heartless bitch, right? Okay, maybe I was. But I had always been one. Wasn't going to change now.

"You got him good." Jason started laughing and then noticed I hadn't blinked once as I looked at the body. I usually did, I hated looking at a dead or dying corpse. I'd usually kill somebody and walk away not looking back and wait for somebody else to dispose of the body. Except now I couldn't help but stare at the mangled, limb body of a man that in my eyes didn't deserve to live and most likely wouldn't live to see the next day.

"Jase is it wrong not to have any feeling of sorrow?" I asked as I looked over my shoulder to make sure that nobody, preferably Courtney, had followed us down to the beach, nobody should have to see this.

"Rach, if you felt any sorrow for this man I would have to ask you if you felt sorrow for all the men you killed; and you've killed many." His snide remark made me realize that he was right, even if it took me a minute to realize it. "Besides, how could you feel anything for this man, he was nothing but bad business." Jason was always looking out for me, and he always knew that if something was wrong I couldn't lie my way through it.

"Jason, I don't know. I mean have you ever wondered if some of the men you've kiled have families that woudl miss them if anything happened? I mean we always worry about those sort of things when we go into their territory, but why don't we every worry about them? I understand that they are our enemies and that we shoudl only worry about protecting ourselves and thsoe we love. But really, after I realized that my motehr was gone I always knew about that sort of thing, but now I just wonder." For a smart girl like myself, I really did, just ramble on about non-sense. For the second time I looked up to meet Jason's eyes, and I could tell that he understood what I meant even though he probably didn't agree with it, he undertsood. He was laughing at me, "what is so damn..." oh god, I just started laughing with him. Jason was the type of person that didn't show any emotions even if something did bother him unless he was with me.

"Well, I get what you mean.However, since I have been in business with you and Sonny, I've learned that showing any feeling except that of fearlessness, would and could get you killed. That is exactly what lead to you killing Lorenzo, he just cared way too much about how other people felt and that left him vulnerable. If he hadn't beensoin love with Carly do you think we'd behaving this conversation at all?" I shock my head no and smiled as I looked back at Lorenzo.

"Alright. Let's go. I'll call Johnny when we get back. You know what? Forget we had this conversation, I just lost my cool. It's not a big deal. Just promise me you won't tell Sonny. I don't need him fussing over me." I pulled out my cell phone and lookedup at Jason. I started laughing at teh shocked look on his face; Ithink that I had confused him more then usual. I typically did that when I ranted and raved abotu nothing. As we walked back to thehouse Jason's arm around my shoulder, I called Johnny and he told me, e would do something with Lorenzo's body so I didn't have to worry about anybody seeing him.

"Is everything okay?" Carly asked as we walked back into the room.

"Yeah everything is perfect, you don't have to worry about me." I looked across the room to Sonny and I assumes that he understood what I meant. I looked around teh room but I didn't see Courtney anywhere. "Where's Courtney?" That was another habit that had formed once Courtney had moved in with me; to be asking where she was and if she was okay.

"She said she was going for a walk. Why?" Sonny finally looked up as he asked the question I dreaded to hear. I hope Johnny had taken care of Lorenzo's body, Courtney really shouldn't see that. I looked back at Jason and he gave me that the look that said, 'I'll check and see if Johnny did what he was asked.'

"Um, cause." I answered as I looked at the floor trying not to look at Sonny. I would usually answer a question that way when I didn't want to give too much information of show concern, which would then make people ask more questions, so I really don't know why I answered that way.

"Rachel, let's step outside right now!" Sonny wanted to know what I was hiding but I was not in the mood to share with him my problems. Even if he was my brother I had my limits.

"Sonny, I'm fine really don't worry.I just wanted to talk to her that's all." I hope he bought that...

"NOW!" Damn he wasn't buying it. I'm screwed and there was no way that I could think of, to get out of it.

"rachel what the hell's going on? You better tell me. Because if you don't and I find out from somebody else, you know what will happen." Sonny had a tendency to threaten me if I didn't do what he wanted. They were usually empty but that didn't matter. I would just laugh at him most of the time, but that would piss him off even more than before. So this time I opted to use the truth.

"Okay, fine you win. I'll tell you but please promise me you won't be mad at me for not telling you earlier. Right before Courtney andI left Port Charles the apartment exploded. Courtney doesn't know becasue she was in teh car waiting for me. I was on my way down the back stairs when _it_ went off, but I know we lost everything we owned that includes the stuff that was left to me by mum. Sonny, I already told Jason and I already cried.I really don't want to do that now because you need to be happy. I mean look at everything you have, a wife, and two healthy beautiful sons whom couldn'tlove you anymore even if they tried." When I looked at the eys that stared back at me I noticed something I had seemed to have forgotten; I had family and friends that loved me and wanted nothing but happiness for me. At that moment Jason came walking down the hallway with Courtney behind him. Once they were both in the room again the conversation picked up.

"Rachel wh didn't you want me to know? I wouldn't have been mad at you, I just would have wanted to know more." Sonny lifted my head and placed both hands on my shoulders,and then wrapped his arms around me. A sign that he wasn't mad.

"I didn't think you were ready to hear bad news on such a happy day in your life. Whatelse would you want to know?" I quicklyjumped subjectsyet another thing I did. I started to pace up and down the hallway, unware that every timeI walked up and down the hall, everybody could hear me.

"I'd want to know where it came from. Rachel, I still would've wanted to know. I'm yourbrother I need to know these things, good days or not, so that when the police come knocking on my door I can tell them what really happened. Not that they would belive me. But you get the point." Sonny's humor told me that I needed to trust him. I trusted him and he knew it. "I love you and that will never change. You are forever a part of me and that will never go away. Alright, lets go see that beautiful baby of mine." Sonny wrapped his arms around my shoulders and we walkedback in the room. Deep down Sonny knew where and whom the "box" had come from. He also knew that, that person would be taken care of. He wouldn't want to know the details but he knew that the person would be handled.

When would I be able to tell Courtney the truth about teh house? I wondered several days later, as we were sitting on the beach. I looked out at Michel and Sonny playing in the ocean. Sonny looked so happy; who could blame him, we was now a father to two sons who wanted nothing more then to be happy. I looked to my right and there sat Courtney with Jason's arms around her. They too, looked happy and at peace with things that they knew still exsisted in Port Charles, but they were only a second thought because right now they just needed to be happy. When I heard the breaking of sticks behind me I looked over my shoulder to see who it was. It was my sister-in-law and my brand new nephew. I just wished I had soembody to be happy with, just like the rest of my family. Well I guess I can just be happy with what I have. All of a sudden my phone was going off interrupting my thoughts.

"Hello?" I didn't know who'd be calling me; I mean everybody who usually would be calling me was sitting on the beach near me. then I remembered the one person who wasn't.

"Hey you. It's Max are you okay?" I heard the sound of the man I loved and yet could never be with for my brother would kill both of us.

"I'm just sitting here wishing I had somebody to hold me, I was also hoping you would call." I said as I heard the laugh of Max's throaty voice through the phone and I missedhim so badly. I stood up, brushed the sand off my ass and started walking towards teh hosue where Iknew I would have a little bit more provacy.

Max was really my boyfriend exceptwe couldn't be together unless he was protecting me. In other words Max was my bodyguard and Sonny was too over protective of his little sister. We had secretly been together for the past couple of months.

"I miss you baby, I just wishI'd been able to come with you to the island. But Sonny called and told me that he had work for me here and taht you two would be okay without me. I love you. I guess that is what I called to tell you. I have to go before Benny finds outthat I'm talking to you. I love you and I can't wait till you get home soI can see you." ThenI heard a click, which either meant that Benny had foudn him or that he had toget back to work. Oh well I can't complain too much, I mean I was going against my _brother's _rules. I shut my phone and put it back in my pocket, when it went off again.

"What?"I yelled into the phone.

"Rachel? Are you okay.I mean I can call back later if there is a problem."Jason's younger sister Emily's voice came through the phone and into my ear.

"Em, I'm sorry. Max just called and hung up before I could say bye. What can I do for you?" I asked as I apologized to her. I felt really bad because Em was just calling to talk about Benny and here I was being rude as hell.


	3. Chapter 3

_Okay so here is the next chapter. Hope y'all enjoy. Thanks for the reviews and keep it up._

"JASON!" I heard Courtney holler from down the hallway. I just rolled over and was trying to fall back asleep. I really didn't want to be in the middle of another fight that the two of them wheer having.

"Rachel! Do you know where Jason is?" Courtney asked only I was trying to ignore the fact that she was talking to me. She starting pulling the pillow that I had over my head off. "Rachel wake up." She was starting to shake me. Now that I can't ignore.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?" I answered even though my eyes were still closed.

"Jason is gone adn he didn't tell me where he was going. Do you know where he is?" Now I know she is my sister and everything, but she can be very annoying sometimes. (Okay a lot of the time.)

"My best bet would be that he is handling _business_ or something along those lines. Did you ever think to try his cell phone? Can I go back to sleep now?" I pulled the pillow back out of her hands and put it back on my head.

This clued her in that before she came into my room I was trying to sleep. I mean that is usually what people did at five thirty in the morning. Oh screw it! I was never going to get back to sleep now, I decided to take a walk down to the beach; I wrapped a blanket around me and slipped on my sandals. I was trying to be quite but I guess I must of been loud because before I knew it, Michel was at my side walking down to the beach with me. Before we left the house we grabbed a second blanket and a pillow from the couch in the living room.

"Michel you shoudl be in bed. Why are you up? Wait let me guess, Aunt Courtney?" I looked down at my nephew's blue eyes and he nodded yes. When I looked in Michel's eyes I saw what I had seen in Sonny's except now Michel's carried something else...Sleepiness. I chuckled to myself.

As soon as we got down to the beach and laid out one of the two blankets and put the pillow down Michel was fast asleep, I laid down next to him and put the other blanket over us. As I watched him sleep I felt eyes watching from a distance; it was something I had become accustom to as a child, because people where always watching over me. I tried to ignore it but the feeling kept getting stronger, when I turned around I was nearly flattened by Max jumping on me with a huge hug. It took everything I had not to scream, I didn't want to wake Michel up. I slowly stood up and walked about a hundred yards away, dragging Max with me. Oh it felt so good to hold him in my arms even if t was just for a few seconds.

"Max, what are you doing here? Aren't you suppose to be in Port Charles? Not that I'm complaining cause I'm not but I want to know." I looked up into his deep ocean blue eyes and waited for an answer.

"Well, Sonny called me yesterday afternoon right before I called you. Apparenty he found out about 'us'don't ask me how cuase I didn't tell him. He tried to tell me that he was going to fire me if I kept seeing you, but I told him that he couldn't fire me because he would never be able to find another bodyguard for his sister who wouldn't have your best interest in mind. The funny part about it was that he agreed to it." I looked at Max like I was a deer in the headlights, and then I started to laugh. "What is so funny? Do you really think I'm kidding? Well I got news for you babe, I'm not. He really did decide to keep me no strings attached." Oh god how I wished he was telling the truth, but in my heart I could never truly buy what he was saying.

"Auntie Rachel, where did you go?" I heard Michel calling for me.

"I'm coming sweetie, hold on I'll be right there." I ran ove rto his side, "what's wrong did you have a bad dream?" I asked the red heaed boy who was now awake and crying.

"Yes, it was really bad. Will you lay with me?" How could I say no to such a cute boy.

I looked up at Max. He must of understood what the look was for because the next thing I knew Max was laying with us, his arm around my waist. That is later how I woke up. I smiled in my sleep and as I awoke. I thought that maybe just maybe because I wanted Max there that I was dreaming to the point that I was imagining things. I wasn't he was real.

"Rachel where are you?" I looked over my shoulder to find out who was looking for me. It was Carly and I'm guessing she was actually looking for Michel. I looked over to the red head still sleeping and even when Carly yelled louder he still didn't move.

"Over here Carly." I half yelled, half whispered.

"Oh thank god I was beginning to think the worst. When did he come down here with you?" Carly was now sitting in front o fme whispering.

"He came downwith me when Courtney was looking for Jason. Did she find, do you know?" I sat up and started to stand when I realized it had to be at least ten or eleven in the morning.

"Yeah he had to take care of _business._" Carly would use that word loosely because she knew that she would never be able to know what it meant. "He said that Sonny had told him about the _business_ last night and he wanted it taken care of before anybody else found out." I looked at her sideways. "Oh shit. I wasn't suppose to tell you." Oh how I loved my sister-in-law, she was known to have a big mouth.

"Carly what did you hear? What _business_ did Sonny need taken care of?" I looked at a sheepish looking Carly.

"Oh Rachel, you can't tell Sonny for he would kill me if he knew I had told you. I'm guessing that it had something to do with Lorenzo. But like I said I'm only guessing." Carly knew that if she had told me Sonny would have both of our heads. I knew damn well it had nothing to do with Lorenzo, because I had killed him, but she didn't need to know that.

"Auntie Rachel. Can we go back to the house?" I looked down at the red head lying so peacefully on the blanket.

"Oh sweetie why don't you get up and come hug your mother." I looked over and saw him jump up so fast.

Michel was Carly's first son, he wasn't really my nephew but I never let that stop me from loving him. Carly had been married to Jason's younger brother AJ and became pregnant with Michel. But to Sonny that was all in the past even though Sonny hated AJ, he fell right in love with Michel.

"Hi sweetie we have been looking everywhere for you. Why did you come down here with Auntie Rachel?" Carly held the boy so tight I think he was about to lose the ability to breathe. "Run up to the house so daddydoesn't worry anymore." The boy started running as fast as he could. "What is Max doing here? I thought he was suppose to stay in Port Charles." Carly looked past me to teh handsome man still asleep on the blanket.

"Well I don't know, but I really don't care. He's here and that is all that matters to me." I looked down at him and smiled. Carly had known about Max and I since we started dating she was, however, sworn to secrecy. All of a sudden he started to stir, I looked down again and notice that he was feeling around the blanket forsomething or should I say someone.

"Hey where did you go?" I heard his groggy voice and turned around. His eyes weren't open but I knew that he was awarethat I was close.

"Well Carly came looking for Michelso I got up and went to talk to her." I answered only so much before Max was at my side.

"Hi Carly." Was all Max had to say. he just smiled down at the two of us. Max was almost seven feet tall if you can believe it, but Carly and I were just over fiveand a half feet. To us Max was the green gaint. "Come on you two lets get you back to the hosue before anybody finds you missing."

Max, Carly and I picked up the two blankets, folded them and headed back towards the house. Wewould be goingback to Port Charles tomorrow so we had to make sure everything was set to go. When we got back to the houseI noticed that the bike I had rented was the only vehicle in sight.

"Wonder where everybody went? Oh well, I'm going to start lunch. Do you want steak and potatoes?" Iturned around to ask them both and they shock their heads no. "Alright I'llsee you both in a little while." I kissed Max and walked inside.

As I turned on the gas to the stove I heard a click, click, click**.BOOM**!


	4. Chapter 4

_Okay so this picks up right where the other one leaves off. Enjoy_

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the characters unknown.The rest is own by ABC. Enjoy.**

That was all I seem to remember because the next thing I knew I was waking up in a hospital room, with an IV hooked up to my arm. Damn that thing hurt. The thing that nota lot of people understood about me was that I wasn't even scared. Being scared and being in the business didn't mix well. Actually they didn't mix at all. Very much the same way water and oil don't.

"Well I can see that Ms. Corinthos is up, why don't we give her something for the pain." I heard a doctor but couldn't see; I hadn't opened my eyesyet. I oculdn't really feel my left leg, but I'm guessing that had something to do with the explosion. I had sprained my ankle and pulled something in my knee.

"Rachel! Oh god Rachel. Baby, I love you please don't leave me. Oh god, why did this have to happen?" I could tell that my family and Max were there and by the sounds of it Max was crying.

"Max." I whispered only so loudly that he could just barely hear me.

"Oh baby, what happened?' He asked as he took my hand and kissed it, and then he brushed his lips against mine.

"I don't know. The last thing I remember was turninghe gas to the stove on, and then BOOM! Do you have any idea whatcould have happened?" I opened my eyes for the first time to see Sonny, Michel, Carly, baby Morgan, Courtney, Jason and Max looking lovingly at me.

"Oh thank god you are wake. My god we thought we had lost you. You told methat you were going to be careful.What the hell happened?" Sonny was mad as hell at me but the funniest part about it was he didn't seem to care. I know he did, care thatwas.

"Oh Sonny shut up. Let the poor girl talk, she's in ahospital. If you were in her place anddon't tell me you haven'tbeen, because you'd justbe lying to all of us. Would you want her to come into her room and start yelling atyou becauseyou made a mistake?" Jason was always the one to make Sonny realize the truth. And somehow thecomment made us all laugh.

"Sonny, how could I have known whatwas going to happen? AllI wasnted to do was make lunch adn I just turned on the stove. And it is not Max's fault that I got hurt, it is nobody's fauly. You knowwe may neverbe able to figure out who tapped thegas line and I really don't care, I'm alive and that is all that should matter." I said as I sat up in the hospital bed.

I looked at Sonny and knew that he understood and I alsoknew that he didn't really mean to say what he had, but he had to yell or be mad at somebody or maybeeven both.

"Max, come here, I have something for you." I said as he brought his face closer to mine. I really didn't care if Sonny didn't like it,he would have to deal with it.

"What?" Max asked.

"I love you." I said with a smile, and then pulled his headto mine and kissed him like I had never kissed another man in my life. The weird part was that I wasn't thinking about Max whiel I was kissinghim. I was thinking about the kid from Mr. Moretalli's class.I shock off the thought and kept kissing him.

"EWEWEWEWEWEWEW!" I started to laugh as Michel bellowed his displeasure of Max andI kissing.

"Oh Michel. Come here you." Michel climbed up on the bed with me."Michel when you fall in love, and don't try telling me you won't. I wasonce your age, ask your dad I told him I would never fall inlove and now look at me. I love Max and he loves me and kissing him is just as much fun to me as playing withyour trucks is for you. I promise when youfind love youwillalways remember how you never liked seeingpeople kissing." I said as I made a face and tickled him. I tickled him until neither him norI could breathe. I loved hearinghim laugh, itmade me feel better.

That is exactly how I wokeup the following morning, with Michel under one armand Max in the chair across the room. I started to laugh inside, Michel was snoring and Max was talking his sleep. I stretched out my armthat I was able to move adn turned on the little radiothat Sonny had Johnny bring in. A song was just ending and anew one was coming on, oh god it was the song. The song was by Toby Keith, "You Leave Me Weak,"it was teh very firstsong that Max and I danced to at Carly's club.Ilooked across the room to Max and I started to remember the first day we met, it was my sixteenth birthday and Sonnyhad bought me a new car, well sort of see hebought a car and a driver. The driverturned outto be Max and as they say the restis history.

Max was so handsome as he slep; I was just now noticing how he always seemed to sleep with his hands across his chest, over his heart. Istarted to prya silently, 'god please don't take him away from me, I don't deserve him, he is only a man that I found to be my heart, I love him and I nothing more then for him to happy. I don'tdeserve such a wonderful man for all the horrible things I have done, but please I would givemy own life for his and so if that's what is suppose to happen, let it.'

"Rachel. Are you okay?" Jason was whispering as kneeled nextto me.

"Oh hiJase,yeah I'm fine. Just saying a prayer."

"About what?"

"Ohjust thanking god for my life." I leid to him but heknew that I was lying and he knew why. "Jase, what the hell are you doing here this early? I mean Courtney is probably going awol since I know you didn't leave a note." It was sixthirty in the morning and if I remember anything from the island, other then the explosion, was Courtney's frantic episode.

"Just coming to check on my favorite girl before I headed into work. Is that acrime? Come on look at Super Max over there." I startedd to laugh, Jason would address Max as Super Man because it was a nickname I had given him when I was seventeen,when he saved my life after I went over an embankment off ofJason's bike.

"Heard that, shut up over there some people are trying to sleep." Max was talking only his eyes were still closed.

"Sorry, babe." I looked over to Michel, he was still asleep and I had a feeling he woudl be for a while. He hadn't fallen asleep until midnight.

Sonny and Carly had told the nurse that Michel couldn't sleep unless he was in bed with me, which was some what true butit was only the part true because it was usually Sonny's bed he had to be in. The nurse said it was okay that he stay and she told Max that he could stay ifhe were really my bodyguard. We told her that he was, only I though if she looked at us now she probably wouldn't buy it. I had to laugh at the idea if she walked in, god I would have to spendanother night here by myself, okay I had to make it look real. Here was a Puerto Rico hospital. A place thatI felt out of place but that's okay.

"Jase, leave you're going to be late if youdon't leve now. I love you and all but I know better then that and Sonny will have your head if you aren't there on time to make sure that everybody else is there on time. Remember when I first started, I showed up two minutes late and he nearly ate me for supper." Both of us startedlaughing and then he leftwith a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

I must of fallen back to sleep because the next thing I remember was waking up to Michel complaining about how he didn't want to go to school because he wanted to stay here with me.

"Hi sweetie." I saidas I opened my eyes. "Michel do me a favor go to school and have fun then you can come back and see me. I'm not going anywhere I promise. Plusif you go to school you can tell everybody about teh explosion, and how cool it was."Telling Michel this was like watching the sky light up on the Fourth of July. He became so excited. Even though we were inPuerto Rico the boy still had to go to school. Wealways had a private class when we went onvacation.

"Ok. Aunt Rachel, you promise me you won't go anywhere?" Michel looked up at me and smiled, he kind of looked like that cat thatate the canary.

"I promise. Now come here." I gave him a hug and a kiss on the side of the face.

I was released from the hospital two days later. Sonny had ordered the houseon teh island rebuilt as soon as possible that way if for any reason we had to go back soon we could.The police on the island never did figure out what caused the explosion; however, in the back of my mind I thought that maybeLorenzo had something to do with the gas leak. I may have killed Lorenzo in cold blood, (or so I thought) but thatdidn'tmeanthat one of his goons or even his niece hadn't tried to pull something. We returned to Port Charles yesterday, and ever since then Michel hadn't been able to stop talking about the explosion, whichis no big surprise. I mean he is only ten and those sort of things make a boy wonder how it happened.


	5. Chapter 5

_I hope y'all are enjoying this story. Keep the reviews coming. _

**Once again I own nothing. Enjoy.**

I went back to work two days later. I needed a cane to walk around on but that was only until my leg fully healed.

"Johnny, can you do me a favor? There is a shipment coming in tonight and Sonny has Max doing something. Would you mind going and making sure that it gets in okay?" I asked Johnny.

Johnny was a handsome man, he also happened to be Carly, Michel, and now Morgan's bodyguard. Sonny and Jason had known Johnny for more then ten years. When I first came to town he was _assigned_ to be my bodyguard, even though I kept saying I didn't need one. Jason, Sonny and I trusted him with our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

"Sure thing boss." He walked off smiling.

Johnny was the type of person that even if you told him to call you by your first name he would still call you by what he knew you as. As many times as I had told him to call me Rachel he just kept calling me 'boss' which he knew I hated.

"You ass!" I hollered after him. I loved my job, working for/with my brother was so much fun.I started laughing to myself. I walked further down the hall untill I ran into someone.

"What where you're going you prick." I yelled at someone, they had run into me and now my leg hurt.

"Dammit. Now look what you've made me do." Jason started yelling at me; he had spilledcoffee all over himself.

"Screw you." I was hurt and all he could do was complain about hot coffee. "I don'thave to worry about anything getting in my way now that Lorenzo is gone." I said in a whisper that way nobody could hear me. "Yet here youare running into me with my leg the way it is. Thanks." I loved making Jasonfeel guilty even if I didn't mean it. I loved him and he knew it. I could get away with teasing him.

I left Jason in the hallway as I walked down to Sonny's office, the door was ajar and I could hear a little bit of the ocnversation that was going on. Now I know I had been told time and time again that Ishouldn't ease dropon my brother but this could have something to do with Lorenzo. This is what I heardas I listened outside hisdoor:

"But Sonny, I had nothing to do with what happened on the island. I mean how could I? I know damn well that Rachel would kill me, if that's what it came down to, but I swear I had nothingto do with it." I wish I knew who was in that office; just then the doorswung open. There in front of me stood Samantha "Sam" McCall, she was a woman whoboth Sonny adn I had ties to but didn't know her too well, adistant relative on myfather's side...I think.

"Sam." I said before she had even noticed I was standingin front of her.

"Well, we were just talking about you. How are you feeling?" Sam was trying to be nice but I was not buying it.

"What the hell are you doing here? You're suppose to be in Europe,and what teh hell are you talking about me for? I am sure you already know what happened to me and I am willing to guess you where the one who tapped the gas line to the stove?" I was starting to get mad and theyboth could tell.

"Rachel, why don't you wait outside and I will come and get you?"

"NO Sonny! If she stays so do I and I don't care. I want to know what the hell happened to me and our house." Sonny could tell I was not going to move from the spot that I had planted my foot, okay so he could easily pick meup and place me outside but he didn't.

"Fine you win. But youstay quite." Sonny had finally caved.

"Now Sonny, I think that you knowIhad nothing to do with thatexplosion.I was on a plane back fromEurope when I got the call fromJason. How could I possibly tap the gas line ifI was on a plane? Please tell me that you believe me." I was enjoying watching Sam grovel for his approval.

"OkaySam. I believe you. Promise methat you won't tell anybody about this conversation." Sonny had a big thing for privacy.

"You win. I won't tell anybody. Rachel, I know you may not want to hear this but I hadnothing to do with the gas line. I really hope you feel better and that you canfindit in you heart to forgive me for the things I have done in the past. I would loveto help you find whoever did this to you." See there was an incident about two years agao involving Sam, and I hadn't ever forgiven her for it. But that was me I never forgave realy easily.

"Sam, I maynot know you much about you, and I am very sorry that I jumped to any conclusion. I hope you can accept my apology." I stuckout my hand, she took it and shock it with all her might.

"Now thisis what I like to see." For a moment I had forgotten that my brother was in the room with us. He hugged both of us tightly.AsSonny let go of us Sam turned around, waved over one shoulder and walked out of the room. And that was Sam for you.

Sam was a brunette girl with a small frame and yet she carried herself so well in fact, that sometimes even Sonny was scared of her. And that (Sonny being scared) didn't happen easily. Sam was also packing a piece (it was no small piece compared to my .45) and nobody wanted to mess with Sam McCall when she had a gun. Now I know what all of you are thinking. How bad could she be if I was, Rachel 'has no heart when shooting a gun' Corinthos? Let me put it this way, Ssam won't even lether'prey' grovelon his or her knees for forgiveness. She truly has no heart when it comes to shooting somebody,even if she already knew you.

"Howare you feeling?" Sonny asked as he pulledout a chair for me and then walked around tothe other sideof the desk to sit down.

"I'm sore but other then that I feel fine."AsI sat down I started to feel all of a sudden very tired like I hadn't slept in weeks.

"Hey you okay? You don't look so good." Sonny had now stood up and was at my side before I knew it, with a glass of water for me.

"Yeah I'm fine I just all of a sudden got this feeling like I hadn't slept inweeks. Don't worry though I have slept every night since wegot home." I said. I was trying my damnest to make Sonny not worry about me but I knew that he would, 'that was his job' heonce told me.

"NowI know you're lying but I'll leave you alone...for now." He started to laugh as I made a face that told him not to worry.

"Alright I'm going to go, I only stopped in because I heard you and Sam talkingaboutme. I love youSonny. I'll call you tonight." I kissed his cheek and walked out, more like hobbled out, but that's okay.

"Alright, bye. Love you too." He yelled out the door.

* * *

_Alright so Ihave two chapters up withinforty minutes of each otherand Iwill probably post another one this afternoon. There is a little bit of foreshadowing going on just pay attention. _

_Oh yeah and I probably for forgot to mention that this was written back in 04 so that's why some of the people are still together._

_Please keep reviewing and keep reading. More to come. A little preview..._

_You are going to learn a little something from Rachel and Sonny's background, that I hope some of you will like. _


	6. Chapter 6

_Okay so I am sorry that I didn't get the third chapter up on Wendseday. My computer was acting out again and then I went to Boston for a concert last night and didn't get home until this morning at 130 so here we go. This chapter this a little bit of back history and is going to be kinda long. I am sorry in advance for that. I hope y'all enjoy. Please remember that I wrote this in 2004 so the dating is a little off. Sorry. Pelase review._

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the characters that are unknown (which will be introduced in this chapter.) ENJOY!**

The following day I returned to my classes that I had missed since everything that had happened. Oh, god, I prayed as I hobbled down the hall to my locker (I left my cane at home.) I hoped that Mr. Moretalli wasn't here I didn't need to deal with him today, today of all days.

Today was possibly the worst day of my life, the one day I could never forget and yet somehow I never wanted to. I'll tell you what happened on this day so many years ago that made me hate it and dread it when it came near. Now my memory isn't very good since I was only two when it happened but I can remember the worst parts. It had now been seventeen years since that day...

_January 19, 1986_

_Sonny and I were out on the pporch, I was two and he was pushing me in my little swing, from inside the house came of the sound of my mother and father fighting, _something they did almost everyday.

_"Juan, I'm not kidding I will leave you if I find out that you are having an affair and this time I'm not kidding. I will and I will take the kids with me."_

_"Now if I remember right, the last time you said that, the police beacme involved and you went to jail for a night for kidnapping. Do you really want that to put the kids through that again?" _Now sinceI couldn't see, my mother must of shock her head becasue my father continued. _"I didn't think so. I'm going out I will be back in a few hours. You and the kids better be here when I get back." Then I heard the door slam and the truck start up and peel out of the driveway_. Myfather would do that to make a point to my mother when he wasmad.

_"Michael, why don't you bring you sister in and put her inher crib. I'm going to the drug store then I'll be back. Please don't leave this house without her." That would be the last time I would ever hear or see my mother again._

_Two hours later my father came home, _at the time I didn't know what the smell was on him but now I do, it was of cheap women. _He wasn't happy and yet he wasn't as mad as he was when he had left, _but something seemed off.

_"Michael, come down here now and bring your sister!" Our fatherbellowed from his den at the back of the two stoyr house we lived in._

_"Daddy, mommy said that she would be right back, she just went to the drug store." _I really don't think that Sonny had realized that it had been two hours since than bit that's okay, he was only twelve and didn't watch the clock.

_"I know, now go pack a few of your things and a few of your sister's things, we are going on a trip to California."Our fatehr shoved some clothes in a small abg and then he packed a few ofhis maps and a gun from his gun case. Sonny ranup the stairs excited about the'vacation' as my father had called it._

_"Daddy what about mommy? Isn't she coming with us?" Sonny was always full of questions even those daddidn't want to answer, this was one of those questions._

My father toldSonny, who years later told me_, 'that mom was going to be meeting us in California.' As we were driving down the dirt road to the main street, we passed a caron the side of the road and my father never once stopping not even when Sonny had to pee. My father was getting us out of Mexico _and for whatever reason which was never told to anybody until now, but he took us out of Mexicobecause he had killed out mother and he didn't want to deal with the police_.So a few years later when I wsa four andSonnywas fourteen our father died one night in a drunk driving accident, which was kind of funny because every year when the annivery of our mother's death came around he would drink. _That day happen to be today. I knew that both Sonny and I would be flying down tonight to visit my mother's grave and the sit in which we had seen the car on the side of the road so many years ago.

"Rachel Corinthos?" Mr. Moretalli was bellowing from behind his desk.

"Here." I said trying and yet failing to ignore him.

"Well, thank you for gracing us with your presence today. Where have you been for the past week or so? We missed you greatly." School had only been for a week, but Mr. Moretali, always made a point of picking on me for missing a day or two. I heard a few laughs and decided not to answer him or listen to the laughing. Nobody was to find out whatI did for an after school jobn, nor did they want to know becasue they probably wouldn't believe me, even if I told them. They all knew who my brother was and who Jason was but that didn't mean they had to know who I was. That was my business and only my business.

"Don't listen to them they're assholes." My best friends Georgie Jones and Dillon Hornsby-Quartermine sat next to me and they were exactly the people I could count to when I didn't have the re-assurance of Jason and Sonny.

Georgie Jones was Mac Scorpio's step-daughter and thankfully she was nothing like him. She was a year younger then me but she was very samrt and had skipped a grade. Her mom had left when Georgie was three adn soon she became friends with me after I moved to town. Georgie had a sister named Maxie,she was known as the town slut in Port Charles, about two years ago Maxie moved to Texas to live with her mom. Dillon's storywas very much thesame exceept that his father and mother didn't live in Port Charles. Dillon's mom was a Quartermaine, one of the wealthies familes in Port Charles, (other then the Corinthos Family), so when Tracy felt the need to leave Dillon off (which was most of the time) she'd come back to the states leave him and then go back to whatever she had left in London or where ever it was she was living. This time around Tracy had dropped Dillon off abotu a year and a half ago and since then nothing, not even a birthday car or Christmas gift. It was sad because even if Dillon told you he hated his mother for the things she had done to him, he still loved her and wanted her safe.

Dillon and Georgie had been dating for a little over a year now, they had known each other since they were little, even though he was always moving, they stayed in touch. However, this time around Dillon found what he wanted in a girl, in Georgie. Half the town didn't agree with it or condone it but they dated any way. Mac threw a fit when he found out about it. They had been my best friends since I could remember, well Geirgie had been an dnow Dillon was as well.

"Yeah but still. There was a problem on the island that's why I haven't been here, but I can't tell them that becasue they will figure out whatI do and I really don't want them to know. Besides, Mr. Moretalli, already knows about the explosion so it's not like I have to tell him. He's just being a prick and wants more details then I am willing to out and he knows it." See, Dillon and Georgie knew what I did, but they asked about it. I finished whispering adn looked back up to the front of the room where the teacher stood, he had his back to us so I knew he was trying to ignore us or me. "Come on you two. You ready to get out of here?" I asked in a whisper that way Mr. Moretalli wouldn't hear that we were planning on skipping out on class, which we did at least once a week just to piss him off.

"No, but lets go before he turns around." Georgie said, she wasn't the type of person to just leave but with some help from Dillon and myself, we had somewhat changed that. I picked up my purse and heard a noise that I dreaded. My phone was vibrating and it was hitting my car keys and making a nice little tink, tink noice, though I'm sure everybody could hear it;I quickly shoved my hand in the purse and moved it aorudn and kept walking. Once we were out in teh hallway I looked at the phone to see who had called.

"Hey wait up." We heard as we were walking down teh hallway. I looked back over my shoulder and saw teh kid from Mr. Moretalli's class running after us.

"Hi I'm Stephen Crunmp." He stuck out his hand and waited for it to be shacked, which I just ignored.

"What can I do for you Mr. Crump?" I asked business like with a _tiny _bit of annoyance as we kpet walking.

"Well, I guess I was wondering if you would mind soem more company?" I stopped in my tracks shocked and confused as hell.

"So you just want to all of a sudden become friends with me. It's January, you have sat next to me since September and not said a word to me. Why now?" I was being a bitch and I don't know why, but I was liking it and him.

"Rachel, chill. My god, he's just trying to be nice. Sorry about her, she has been very temper-mental lately. I'm Dillon, and this is Georgie, and that one, that's Rachel. Coem with us, I'm sure she'll be fine in a couple of minutes." Dillon was giving me that look that said calm the hell down.

"Dillon we don't even know him. Sonny would..."

"Wait I know you. You're Sonny Corinthos' little sister."

"Dude wrong thing to say to her." Dillon said as the steam started to form from my ears.

"NO! I'm Rachel Corinthos, not now, nor will I ever be known as 'Sonny's Little Sister.'" Okay I was actually beginning to like this kid. Even though I was being mean. "Fine if you're coming wih us, then lets go before we get caught." I had finally caved, I wanetd to know who had called me. "DAMMIT!" I swore under my breath the number that showed was not one I wanted to find.

"What? What is it? Who called?" Dillon asked knowing that it couldn't possibly be a good thing.

"Sonny, and I'm guessing I have to go into work." I said as we walked outside and down to my car.

"Is that your car?" Stephen asked as I stood next to a 2004 Lamborghini Diablo, black in color. I ignored him and dialed Sonny's number so fast that I don't think I even touched the number pad.

"Corinthos? What the hell took you so long to answer the phone. I've been trying you for the past ten minutes?" I don't think I had ever heard Sonny say that many words so fast before. I pulled out of the student parking lot with my mouth wide opne. Dillon tried to ask me why teh face but I just looked past him to look out teh window.

"Sonny. Chill. What do you want anyways?" I pulled down the road that lead to the penthouse.

"Well, first don't go home and second we have to go back to teh island." Sonny wasn't mad but you could tell he was upset about something. I just wish I knew what.

"I have Dillon, Georgie, and Stephen with me. Why do we have to go back to the island? I really don't have very good memories about that place. Remember about a week ago?" I pulled a very drastic U-turn in the middle of the street. I was now going to Georgie's house.

"I don't care they can come with us if you want but right now don't ask questions. Who's this Stephen kid anyhow? Oh nevermind." Then click the sound that meant Sonny was done with the conversation.

"You guys up for a vacation to the island?" I asked as I pulled up Georgie's driveway.

"Your family owns their own island? My parents won't like the idea of me just leaving." Stephen was starting to grow on me.

"Look if you don't want to go that's fien but tell me now. One thing though, you can't ask so many questions it will only get you in a lot of trouble with Sonny, Jason, and myself. So shut up when you don't know the answer. Oh and you can't ask what the word _business_ means." I looked at him in the face and got the look back that said 'I'll be quiet.' I turned around looked at the three of them adn they all seemed so ambushed that I really didn't blame them if they said 'no.'

"Yes, I'm going, just let me go pack and leave a note for Mac." Georgie said as she, Dillon, Stephen, and I walked through teh front door of her house.

"Georgie, don't tell Mac, you are going to the island though; Sonny and I don't need him on our case. Please?" I begged her. I usually didn't beg, but Mac on our case was worst than surfacing in the middle of the hurricane. Or maybe it was worst then getting struck by lightening while playing golf. I sat down on the couch as she andDillon ran up the stairs to pack.

"Rachel? Um...Can we stop at my house real quick? I guess I'm going togo with you guys. I mean if it's okay, I don't have to go but youguys are theonlyreal people I have known since I moved here. Every time I try totalk to people they just ignore me and don't even talk to me." Stephen was looking at he ground and scuffing his feet on the carpet,a s if he were nervous to talk to me. I thought to myself this kid has been here sinceSeptember and he hasn't madeany friends. I felt bad for him.

"Stephen, come over here and sit down." I said as I moved over so he had room to sit. "You don't have to be afraid to talk to me. I'm not going to hurt you I promise. I would love for you to join us on teh island. So please come with us." I moved his head so he was looking me in the eyes. I needed him to trust me and even though I had been a bitch I was starting to really like the kid and I think he knew it, which was bad on my part but that was okay.

"Alright. Lets go before Mac comes home to find me with suitcase in hand." I hadn't even heard Georgie and Dillon comme down the stairs.

"Next stope the Quartermaine mansion." I said as I started the car, looked in the rear view mirror and just looked at Stephen, who just stared back.

"What are you waiting for? Mac?" Dillon interrupted my thoughts bring me back to to reality.

"Oh yeah." I shifter into reverse and once I wason the road I shifted it into fifth gear. The Quartermiane mansion was only five minutes from georgie's house so it didn't take too long to get there.

"Okay Dillon. Run!" I said as he jumped out of the car and ran up the drive. AsI thought about what I was saying I realized that the Quartermaines wouldn't evennoticeif Dillon was gone. Maybe I was lucky to have a family that cared about me. As wewaited in thecarI called Sonny.

"Hello?" Sonny picked up on the first ring.

"Hey, listen we'll be to the airport runway in twenty minutes. Why do we have to go back?" I wanted to know except for some reaason I was more looking forward to just going so I could get to know Stephen better.

"I'll explain on the plane. I'll see you in a few minutes. I love you. Oh and mom loves you too. I bet she's very proud of you, I guess taht amkes two of us." Sonny said, he hadn't forgotten about today. I looked over my shoulder, hung up my phone and started to cry.

"What's wrong Rachel?" Stephen asked as Dillon got back into the car. I wiped away the last stray tear and said that nothing was bothing me. They all knew it was a lie but I didn't care.

"Stephen, where do you live, anyways?" I asked as I pulled out of the driveway.

"The Port Charles Hotel, penthouse 28." He said as he leaned up against the back of my seat, wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed the side of my head. He made me feel comfortable being in a car with somebody I had just met twenty minutes before.

"To the Port Charles Hotel." I said with a smile and nearly ran a red light. Oops.

Ten minutes later I pulled into the PCH parking lot.

"Like I told Georgie, don't tell your parents where you going. Just tell them you'll call when you get there. Okay now RUN!" I said as I clapped my hands together like a drill sergeant. They all started to laugh.

Stephen took longer then he said, his mother happened to be home so he had to lie to her about where he was going. I felt bad for him though, because I hated when I had to make somebody lie. As soon as his ass hit teh seat of the car, we were gone.


	7. Chapter 7

_Okay so here is another chapter.I hope y'all are enjoying this story. Please continue to review. Thank you to everybody that has reviewed this. I am glad you like it._

**Disclaimer: Once again i own nothing. ENJOY!**

We arrived at the airport at the same time as Sonny, Carly, Courtney, Jason, Johnny, and Leticia (the kids nanny).

"Hi boss." Johnny said with a smile.

"You know Johnny one of these days that's going to come back and bit you in the ass. I promise you, so I suggest you call me Rachel." I said with a smile as I punched his shoulder. Johnny started running like a bat out of hell. He knew I wasn't going to run after him, my leg hurt too much for that. We all climbed aboard the jet and had been ready to take off when my phone, Sonny's phone and Jason's phone all went off at once.

"Corinthos...Corinthos...Morgan..." We all answered the phone the same way. The weirdest part about teh conversation was that they were all the same person. What we heard we took to heart.

"Alright everybody off teh plane NOW!" I yelled, I wasn't going to put my friends and family in risk of being killed. Okay, y'all are probably interested in the phone calle. Well, here is what was said:

"If you want your family to live you will de-board the plane now." Then nothing, no number, no nothing.

Stephen and I were the last off the plane, and the last step, thank god was not the worst. Johnny had the cars brought around.

"Sonny,wait!" I hollered after him.

"Yeah?"

"Why the island? Why notFrance or Germany?"I asked not realizing the would be scientific.

"Bien dedibo a mama, conjeturo. (Becauseof mum.) I don't know, maybe I wanted all your friends and family with you. I knowthat today has always been hard for you. Now, can we get out of here and meet back at theGrill? Bring Georgie, Dillon, and Stephen." He kissed the side of my head and then left.

"Alright you three, lets go. We're going to the Port Charles Grill." I siad kind of exhausted from all the commotion. The pain in my leg had returned, I needed Advilbut I didn't have any.

"So are we still going tothe island?" Georgie asked. I'm guessing she wantedout of this little piss ass town just as much as the rest of us; even if it was for a couple of days.

"We'll probably leave later tonight, but if not then early morning. You guys cancrash at my place tonight or until we leave." I said as we pulled into the parking lot behind Sonny.

Ten minutes into our dinner my phone went off, taking me by surprise.

"Hello?" I said as I continuedlaughing at something SOnny had said.

"Hey, babe. How are you?" Max's voicecaught me off guard.

Oh boy, my mood changed real quick. Howwas I going to explain toMax where I was? He would kill me if he knew I was having dinner with family and friends, without him. A hundred questions ran through my mind at once.

"Hi." I said tryingmy best to sound happy to be talking to him. However, even I could tell it was half-hearted and not pure.

"Are you okay? You sound funny." I knew he wasn't buying it.

"Listen can I call you tomorrow? I'm kind of...um tied up. Bye."I hung up real quick and shut off my phoen. I sat back down in my seat and rejoined the already deep conversation.

"Hey is everything okay?" Stephen leaned over and whispered in my ear.

"Yeah I'll explainlater. Sonny do you remember when we left Mexico? You were so excited." I said. I thought it was about time that everybody knew why Sonny and Iare the way we are,even Stephen who we'd only just met. The thing was that Jason and Carly didn't even know the real reason.

"What do you mean?" Sonny asked knowing this was the time I was going to explain everything.

"Sonny. It's about time they know. They are family and friends they should know." I said as looked across the table to where Sonny sat.

"Fine, you can tell them. Just not here." He said, well it was more of a demand.

"Fine . On the plane." I sat back against the seat as the waitress brought our food.

For the next thirty minutes we ate and talked. I excused myself and walked over to the bar.

"hey Rob. Straight tequila please." I said to the man behind the bar.

"Here ya go sweethear. If you need anything else let me know." He said as he walked away.

"Rachel. Are you okay?" Dillon walked behind me then sat down next to me. "I've never seen you drink before. What the hell is wrong?" He asked concerned for the fact that I was drinking. I was only nineteen but everybody knew me and they never asked questions, especially if I asked for a drink. I was never ID'd either, should have been but wasn't.

"I'm fine go back to the table. I'll be there in a minute, let me drinkmy worries away." I said as I looked at him.

"Fine." Dillon got up and went back to the table. I thanked Rob and walked back to the table, waiting forthe floor to open up and swallow me.

Ten minutes later, we were headed back to the airport. As I was driving I wasn't paying attention to anything that was going on. As we pulled into the airport and got out of the cars I started crying.

"I can't start crying in front of these people." I thought as I dropped to my knees on the tar, all my feelings came to me at once and I couldn't hold them in.

"Rachel. Shhh...hey baby girl. It's okay just cry all you want, we won't judge you. I promise." STephen was the one holding me. He had wrapped his arms around me from behind and was gently rocking me back and fourth as he said soothing thing to me, he even called me by the nickname only Sonny used and nobody knew about. This man never seemed to let me down in my time of need. Usually Jason was the one comforting mr, not a man I had just met a mere two hours before.

"Hey, Stephen can you carry her onto the plane? We are going to miss our chance if you don't." I heard Jason ask him.

"Yeah, that won't be a problem. Come on. Hold on tight." He told me as he picked me up. He had one arm under my knees and one the small of my back. I wrapped my arms aroudn his neck as he carried me up the stairs. Once we'd gotten on board he sat me down on the couch, buckled me in, and thenlaid down next to me.

I finally stopped crying about five minutes into the flight. When I stopped crying I realized that I was laying in Stephens arms on the couch.

"Where is everybody?" I asked as I unbuckled, wiggled out of his arms and stood up.

"They're up front. They wanted to give you space. I stayed because I was worried adnbecasue I thought you might want to talk." Stephen said as he unbuckled, grabbed a blanket and threw it over himself.

"Thank you." I said softly. "I need to talk to you." I said as I sat on the table next to the couch. He sat up and motioned for me to sit next to me, I just stayed where I was.

"Your welcome. Are you okay?" I'm guessing he wanted to know what I had tell him

"Um.." I couldn't think of where to start. "The phone call at the Grill was Max. Max is...um was my boyfriend." I didn't know what to call him. "Anyways, after I met err saw you I didn't think about Max so much. You seemed to pop into my thoughts whenI least expected it and it wasn't always at a good time. I know I probably sound lame or desperate, but right now th next thing I say is going to be selfish. Iwant you. Or maybe Ineed you, but either way it boils down to I want to be with you." I said as I looked at my hands. A hundred different thoughts and ideas ran through my mind as to how I was going to end it with Max. Yet, I couldn't come up with a good enough excuse, because I think I did love him but only as a brother/sister relationship. It wasn't like Stephen, when I looked at Stephen something in me stopped. I don't know what, but something stopped. I couldn't explain it to myself, so how in the hell was I going to explain it to Max? I thought.

Stephen hadn't said anything so I started to get up when I heard in a whisper: "I want to be with you, too." I looked over my shoulder to make sure he had really said it. I hope he had becasue if he wasn't then I would be hearing things.

"What?" I turned around fully to look at him.

"I said, I want to be with you, too." He said as he stood up. I ran over to him (even though it was all of maybe two steps.) He wanted me.

"Rachel, wait." He said softly as he put his hand on my shoulderto stop me from hugging him. "You hav eto take car of some unfinished business first." Hesaid as he handed me my cell phone so I could call Max.

"Oh shit. Alright fine." I said as I dialed Max's cell number. "Would you mind going up front with Dillon and Georgie? I need to do this myself." I pushed him out the door only for him to come back in and kiss me. I could have sworn the earth stopped in mid rotation.

"Okay, now I'll leave." He said with a bow and smile.

"Now the worst part of this." I said aloud wanting the floor of the plane to open and swallow me whole. I dialed Max's number with shaky hands. I really didn't want to do this, but I had to if I wanted to be with Stephen.

"Hello?" Max answered, he sounded like I woken him up. Knowing me I probably had. I was known for waking people up in the middle of night. Even though it was only nine, Max worked nights and would just be getting up or a little later.

"Hi Max. Um yeah. Listen I'm sorry about earlier, but I have to talk to you. It's important. Willyou please wake up." I was starting to beg and I wasn't liking it.

"Oh hi. I guess if it's important." Max wasn't tired but something was off. He must of put down the phone because the next thing I heard, wasn't what I was expecting. "I'll be right back baby. I have to talk on the phone. I pomise when I get abck I'll give you the heavens." Max was cheating on me. Damn that man, now I understand why Sonny didn't like him."What's up? Don't worry about earlier." I was now pissed off and he was going to get an earful even if he didn't want it.

"MAXWELL ARRON MACINTOS! Usted hijo de mentira de una perra! (You lying son of a bitch!) I heard you with that other woman. Como atrevimiento usted? (How dare you?) Now I know why Sonny didn't want me to date you." To make matters worse I knew everybody in the other room could hear me. "Max this is the end. I'm not going to go through this. I called to break up with you and I was having second thoughs but not anymore. I don't want to hear or see you again! ADIOS!" I hung up my phone, shut it off and walked casually out to the other room. I would sometimes mix my languages when I got pissed off. As I walked through the door everybody was staring a me but I only kept walk towards Stephen.

"Hi." I whispered as I sat down in his lap.

"Hi" He whispered back. "How are you?"

"Never better. es excedent que nunca tengo que tratar de ese hijo que pone mide el tiempo dos de una perra." ( I never have to deal with that two timing lying son of a bitch, again.) I bluntly said as I looked aimlessly around the room.

"Rachel, what the hell is going on?" Sonny asked concerened becasue I never talked about Max that way.

"Well to make a long stoyr short, Max and I are over. I never want to see him or hear from him again." I looked at everybody else as I snuggled closer to Stephen's body. He just wrapped his arms around me, Georgie had a question adn wasn't afraid to as, which really was a surprise. I'm almost sure everybody was going to have questions.

"What happened between you two?"

"Who? Stephen and I or Max and I?" I asked a little ocnfused as to whom she was referring to.

"Both I guess." She said as she stood up, walked over to the mini-fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.

"Well, when I called Max to break up with him I heard him withanother women in his bed. Oh and to confirm my thoughts he told her that when he was done on thephone he'd give her the heavens. I don't think he knew I could hear him. I don't care he's done. Now I don't have to deal with him when teh bottom falls out from under him." I took a breather and looked around at everybody. "The thing is I don't think I really loved him. For the past couple of months I've been going through the motions of telling him and myself thatI loved him. I say this because all I could think about was Stephen even though I didn't know him. I wanted him or needed him. Sonny you were right to not want mewithMax. He'll never understand me but somebody here does. That's why I broek up with Max aside from whatI heard." I had stood up, walked over to Sonny and gave him ahug, thanking him for protecting my heart.

"No una pequena herana del problmea. Eso es par cual estoy aqua." (No problem little sis. That's what I'm here for.)He kissed the side of my head. I laughed at him for the little sister comment but I didn't care.

"Rachel, what were you wanting to tell us at the Grill, but were told to wait?" Dillon asaked curiosity getting the better of him.

"I'll let Sonny tell the story I don't think I could handle telling the story." I said as I looked at Sonny hopping he wouldn't mind tallking about Mexico. He didn't and for the duration of the flight Sonny told the story of mour mother and father, and of happier times. I never once left Stephen's lap or his arms.

* * *

I'm sorry for the spanish but I did add the translation. So I hope that helps. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Diclaimer: I own nothing except characters unknown to you the readers. Please contiune to enjoy this story and the hard work that went into making this story the way it is. Thank you again to everybody who has reviewed this story.**  
_Once again here is another chapter. Please review. Okay here we go._

When the plane landed I stood up dragging Stephen behind me. I wanted him to see how beautiful the island was. It was two in the morning but I couldn't be more awake. Sonny was so good to me, he had called ahead and had a Yamamha 356 XZ2 waiting for me.

"We'll meet you at the house." I said as I hoped on and turned on the machine. Stephen just looked at me like he'd never seen a girl drive a bike. I pulled my helmet on and turned back to Stephen. "Well you coming or you going to walk?" I asked and started laughing at the look I got back.

"Yeah, I'm coming." He climbed on the back adn I handed him a helmet as he wrapped his arms around my waist. Man did it feel good to have his arms around me.

"You ready?" I asked not wanting to take off if he wasn't.

"Yup."

"Okay, hold on tight." I siad as I took off with a huge smile on my face.

I took Stephen for a ride up to the cliffs that over looked the ocean. An hour into the ride I stopped, climbed off, took my helmet off, and sat down on a rock.

"What's wrong?" Stephen asked as he sat down next to me, probably unsure if I was second guessing oour relationship, so soon after it had started..

"I want you to see something." I said in whisper. It felt like I had to whisper so that you didn't disrupt anything that could possibly be aroudn. That was how beautiful it was.

"And thsi something is, what exactly?" He asked as he move to sit behind me with his legs on either side of me. I leaned back against him, I could hear his heat beating in a pattern that sounded like a song I knew, however, I couldn't thihnk of the name of it.

"Well, if you don't mind sitting here. We've got to sit here for anotehr hour or so unitl _it_ happens. There's a blanket in the side bag." I said as he stood up and walked back to the bike to get the blanket. "If I know Sonny." I said to myself. Sure enough Sonny had put a blanket in the side bag. Sonny knew taht I was going to visit my spot where I could feel my mother watching over me.

"Here ya go." He handed me the blanket then sat down behind me again. I waited until he was comfortable and threw the blanket around the both of us. "Why this spot? Why not the beach? Or is there more to it then just the sunrise?" He asked and I knew, I had to be honest with him if I wanted to keep him in my life.

"The reason I wanted you to see the sunrise from up here is because from this spot, I can feel my mother watching over me. Plus I wanted to be with you, without my family hanging around." I looked back at him, as I turned my head he kissed the side of my face.

The sunrise was coming and I could feel my mother watching over me. For the first time in a long time I felt at peace with everything and everybody. That included what had happened with Max earlier in the night.

"I think I get it. You know you don't have to be afraid to tell me what you are feeling. I want to be with you and that means more then just your body. I want to be with your heart and soul, I want to know you as a person. I'm not going to push you and I'm not going to be Max. I promise you right here, right now in front of your mother that I will never break your heart on purpose. Besides, your brother would most likely kill me." He chuckled to himself and quickly turned serious again. "I, Stephen Crump, promise you the world." Stephen had wrapped his arms around me and kissed my cheek.

"Oh, Stephen." I sighed and leaned back against him. "You don't have to promise me the world. You already mean the world to me, even though it's only been a couple of hours, it feels like a life time. And for the some reason I know my mother wouldlove you, had she been given the chance. Therefore, I, Rachel AlexandraCorinthos, promise you Stephen Crunmp that I won't puposely break your heart either." I used his words to my benefit. For the first time Ihad told him my full name. "Oh, Stephen look..." Ipointedout towards the sky. "Es tan hermosa. Mama, te amo y le falto tanto." (It's beautiful mama. Mama, Ilove you and miss you so much.) I said asI looked up towards the sky. I said it in Spanish that way Stephen didn't understand me. I hoped.

"Ella le ama tambien. (She loves you too.) I bet she misses you more then you know." He knew Spanish. "This is a beautiful moment but my ass is frozen. Would you mind if we go to the hosue now?" I knew he was trying to be nice. I started laughing as I knew the feeling, my ass was getting cold too. I had been able to feel my mother and I told Stephen the truth so it didn't matter if we left.

"Veale una mama mas ultima.(Bye mama, I'll see you later.) How do you know Spanish?" I asked as I pulled on my helmet and climbed on the bike.

"Veale unamama ams ultima de Rachel." (Bye Rachel's mom. I'll see you soon.) He said as he blew a kiss in the air. He didn't answer my question but that was okay, he probably took it in school.

It took about an hour to get to the house from where the cliffs were. By the time we got to the house it was close to if not five, the surprising part was that Sonny was up and making breakfest. Usually Sonny wasn't up til seven or later.

"Hi Sonny." I said as I walked into the kitchen, put my helmet on the table and kissed the side of his face.

"Hi. Baby-girl." I had always been calledthat even after I reached and passed my mid-teens. "Hi Stephen. How's mum?" He asked knowing that I had taken Stephen to the cliffs.

"Good." I answered with a smile.

"Mr. Corinthos." That was Stephen's way of saying hi.

"It's Sonny. Consiga ese casco de mi mesa!" (Get that helemt off of my table!) Sonny didn't like anything except food on his table.

"I was waiting for that." I said as Stephen and I started laughing. "Sonny since you haven'thad a proper introduction this is Stephen Crump. Stephen this is my older brother Michael 'Sonny' Corinthos." I said as I sat down at the table and put my helmet on the floor, near the door we had just come in.

"Hi, how are you?" Sonny asked as he slid a plate of eggs and hash browns in front of me.

"Sonny, I don't want eggs and hash browns, I want eggs and bacon." I said as I made a face of disgust with a small laugh.

"Well, too damn bad. I made eggs and hash browns not bacon. And GOD Damnit you'll eat it and like it." Sonny said with a smile and a deep throaty laugh.

Beep...Beep...Beep...My cell phone went off.

"Corinthos." I answered my phone a little pissed off at the fact that I had been enjoying a good laugh with my boyfriend and my brother. Wow, saying boyfriend and referring to Stephen was very weird.

"Well...Ms. Rachel we talk again."

"Who the hell is this?" I think I knew but I wasn't a hundred percent sure.

"You surprise me. You should know who this is. You thought you killed me the last time you were on the island." I could feel the color drain from my face, than it came back in a wave that made me dizzy and light headed.

"Que usted desea?" (What do you want?)

"I want to put aside our differences. Besides you have something I want. Pienso que eles sanguine derecho usted, alto y hermoso." (He's standing right next to you, he's tall and handsome.)

"Oh god." I said aloud. Part of me wanted the prick to be outside the door but the other part of me didn't want him there. I wanted him there so I could protect the one thing I had been taught to protect; the people I loved. I hung up my phone and just had enough time to hit the floor before a hail of bullets came blazing threw the window in the kitchen door. Mind you the same door Stephen and I had entered threw maybe fifteen minutes before hand.

"Rachel, who was that?" Sonny asked already knowing the answer to his own question.

"Lorenzo. Stephen don't move." I slowly stood up pulling my gun and loading it as I stood up. I walked gun in hand ready to fire towards the door. Ignoring the look Stephen was giving me about the gun, and how he hadn't noticed it before now.

"Rachel, where are you going?" Both of them asked at the same time.

"I'm going to take of the bastard for the last time. Sonny stay here. Stephen go get Jason. Oh and be careful." I said as I kneeled down next to him and kissed him. I watched over my shoulder as he disappeared over the stairs.

"What did he say?" Sonny asked in a tone that said why did you show Stephen the gun.

"He said that he wants Stephen. Sonny, he's just trying to hurt me that's all." Just then Jason came down the stairs without Stephen. "Jase, where is he?" I asked, before I left, I had to know he was safe.

"He's fine. Now what is this about Lorenzo?" He said now wide awake.

"I'll tell you on the way. Come on. Do you have your gun?" Dumb question, we never leave home without it. Just then another hail of bullets came threw the already broken window. Sonny, Jason, and I laid flat on the floor. We were all pissed off and wanted nothing more then to finish the job I started on the island the first time.

"The back door." Sonny whispered.

The three of us stood up and ran like hell was closing in on us. We ran right through the back door hoping we'd be able to catch the bastard and his goons off guard. Unfortunately for us that's what they had planned for.

"Well...Well...Well..What do we have here?" Lorenzo came walking around the corner carrying a 9mm.

"Let go of us!" I demanded as I fought against the restraints of his oversized guards.

"Now that wouldn't be any fun now would it?" Lorenzo was taunting us and he was enjoying it. "Load 'em up!" Lorenzo said as his guards forced us to walk to a waiting car.

"WAIT!" I heard from the second floor window. I think it was Courtney but I wasn't sure. I didn't turn around, scared that if I did something bad would happen to her.

"Courtney go back to bed. It will be okay. I promise." Jason hollered back. Although you could hear it in his voice that he wasn't a hundred persent sure that it would be.

The next thing I heard was a loud, quick, double pop. I don't know who fired first but I do know who fired last. For what seemed like the next two minutes there was gun fire everywhere. When it was all over with, three lay alive but shot, four lay shot but unconscious and one lay dead.

I sat up to look around at the damage. To my left lay Jason blood pooling around his right shoulder. He was alive but unconscious. To the right of me sat Sonny holding his left knee. I told him not to move as I went to check on the others in the house. I'd been shot in the shoulder adn it felt like a threw and threw, it hurt to put pressure on my left side. As I stood up I saw Lorenzo laying face down, shot in the back of the head...DEAD. Two of his goons were unconscious, and the third was alive but badly hurt. That made seven, I somewhat ran into the house adn up the stairs to see if anybody else had been injured. When I walked into the room that Courtney and Jason shared I saw Stephen laying on the floor, he was okay. However, when I looked on the other side of the bed on the floor was Courtney.

Courtney was face down with blood pooling from her abdomen. When I bent down to feel for a pulse I noticed a gun in her right hand. Courtney hated the fact that Jason, Sonny and I carried them, she always swore she'd never touch one. So it was a little odd that she was holding one, which by the smell of it had just been fired. Then it hit me, Courtney had been the first one to shot. She was probably the one that killed Lorenzo, which is what started the fire fight.

"Stephen come help me!" I yelled even though he was just across the room. "Help me turn her over. Please?" I asked as I held my left arm not wanting my shoulder to be exposed. I also wanted the pain to go away, but that hadn't happened yet and probably wouldn't for some time.

As he turned her over I saw exactly where the entry wound was. She had probably been turning to walk away from the window when she'd been shot. She was shot in her left side, the bullet was most likely lodged in her liver or her stomach.

"Stay here. I'm going to go have Carly call 9-1-1." I said as I struggled to stand back up.

"Wait are you okay?" Stephen asked finally realizing I had blood dripping down the front of my baby blue tank top.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I just have a hard time standing up. I'll be fine I promise." I kissed the top of his nose. Before I left he made me wrap my arm in a make shift sling made from his shirt. I walked down the hallway looking in every room until I found Carly along with the kids in Georgie and Dillon's room at the end of the hallway.

"Carly don't ask questions just call 9-1-1. Tell them that there are two critical, one serious, four minor, and one dead."

"Wait, dead?" Carly wanted to know who was dead hoping it wasn't Jason, Sonny or Courtney.

"Don't worry it's Lorenzo." I said as I looked at a scared Georgie and Carly. I walked out of the room and back down the hall to where Courtney was. Don't worry, yeah even I wasn't buying that one.

"How is she?" I kneeled down next Stephen as I asked him.

"Well...Help better get here guick or..." I knew the ending to that sentence. It was a line I heard so many time before.

"Stay with her." I said then I walked back outside to see how Jason and Sonny were doing.

"Sonny how you feeling?" I looked down at him with concern in my eyes.

"Dizzy other then that I am fine." I walked over to Jason, he started to move, he was waking up.

"Jase. Hey hun. Don't move you were shot in the shoulder. You've lost a lot of blood." I said calmly even though I was pissed off and scared.

"Rachel?" He said as he tried to breathe.

"Yeah?" I said as I leaned over so I could hear him.

"Courtney, is she okay?" He asked and my expression a lone must of have been enough for him. He tried to get up only to groan in a lot of pain.

"Jasone, she was shot in the left side of her abdomen. She's lost a lot of blood, a lot more then you. Please don't try and move. Stephen is with her and Carly called 9-1-1. They should be here soon...I hope." I looked up towards the darken sky. Please let the rain hold off. I pleaded with nobody in particular. "Sonny make sure he doesn't move." I walked back towards the house stepping over Lorenzo's mingled body on my way. I looked over my shoulder as I got closer to the house to make sure they had listened.

"Carly!" I hollered up the stairs.

"Yeah." I heard her walk to the top of the stairs then she told me what teh operator had told her. "The medics are on their way but it could take awhile. The weather on Puerto Rico is really bad." Carly answered as she came out of the room.

"Carly do me a favor. Take Georgie, Dillon and the kids to the airport and meet us in Puerto Rico. I'll call you once we take off. Now go!" I said as I heard a honk. "Alright Johnny is here with teh car. Now move." I didn't need them to see what was in the backyard. It would only scare them and I needed friends that didn't judge me.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except characters unknown. ENJOY!**_  
Okay so thank you for the reviews I appreciate it very much. Please keep doing so it helps me to know that people are enjoying this story._

Two day, one hundred fifty four stiches, three major surgieries, four minor, and one funeral later, we had survived one of the bloodest gun battles I had ever been involved in. Courtney was still in a coma, which the doctor said was normal, Sonny and I were release from the day after the shooting. Jason had to spend two night in the hospital but had been released this morning.

Stephen, Dillon, Georgie, Carly and the kids had been staying at a near by hotel. I had been staying with Stephen in his room, (Don't worry nothing happened, not that neither of us didn't want something to happen. It just wasn't the right time.) I just needed a place to relax and be away fron people-even if they were my family.

"Stephen...Stephen...NO! NO! Come on please don't die on me! NO! Lorenzo you bastard! WHY!" I woke up in a cold sweat with tears streaming down my face. I looked down next to me, Stephen was stirring.

"Baby. Are you okay?" He sat up next to me and wrapped his arms around me.

"Yeah, just a nightmare. Go back to sleep, I'm going to go see Courtney." I got out of bed, grabbed a pair of low cut jeans, a black tank top and went into the bathroom to change. I came back out to the room trying to pull my hair up into a ponytail. I gave up. My left arm was in a sling so that made it kind of difficult to do anything.

"Here. Let me help you." Stephen said softly as he climbed out of bed in nothing but his boxers. He came over behind me and pulled my hair up into a tight ponytail. Now I would have been sacred to know how he knew how to do ponytails but I had learned that he had a sister who always bugged him to do that for him.

"Thank you baby." I kissed him. Usually I was too stubborn to let anybody help me but I had learned in a two day time period that it was okay to ask for help. He got back in bed as I sat down and put on a pair of knee high black boots. I kissed him again, grabbed my purse, a jacket, then quietly opened the door and left.

Ten minutes later I was walking into the hospital and heading straight to Courtney's room. I sat down on a stool next to Courtney's bed. I looked around, hospitals always scared me.

"Courtney. Hey hun." I nervously looked around again. "Hey you, you got to wake up for me. Um. Oh Courtney you've got to wake up. If you don't who am I suppose to talk to about Stephen." I nervously laughed unsure if I should be laughing."Courtney, I think I love him and it's different then Max. I mean it's really different. I don't have any walls when I talk to him, and I'm not afraid to me with him. I mean really be with him. Oh and get this Sonny and Jason like him." I said as I smiled at the thought of Jason and Sonny thanking him for taking care of everything. "Speaking of Jason he's okay, he lost a lot of blood but he's fine. Sonny and I are okay. Lorenzo..." That's when it happened, something wasn't working either with the surgery or in the medication becasue she started seizing.

"SOMEBODY HELP! I NEED A DOCTOR!" I yelled out the door. Just as I was about to poke my head back out the door two nurses and a doctor came running in.

"What's wrong? What happened?" I asked too many questions as I got pushed out the door by a nurse.

I peered through the window in the hall, tears streaming down my face. Come to think of it my eyes were starting to hurt from all the crying I'd been doing. I walked down the hall, intending to go outside to call Sonny and tell him what was happening, when a nurse stopped me in the hall.

"Miss..."A nurse was talking to me.

"Yes. Please tell me she is okay?" I asked as I turned around.

"She is stable but there is a problem. She doesn't seem to be responding to the medication. So we have been told by the doctor to change the meds." Oh thank god it nothing bad like the surgery didn't get all of the bullet. "And there is one more thing. When we did an x-ray to see where the bullet was..."

"Wait! You didn't get the bullet out?" Now I was pissed off, what kind of doctor where these people? I thought as I looked at the nurse.

"Ma'am that is not what I said. What I am saying is there are little fragments that we were unable to get."

"Oh god..." I looked apologetically at the woman standing in front ofme. She couldn't of been more then 25 years old. "I'm sorry I snapped. I mean...Ella va ser sin embargo...?" (She's going to be okay... right?) I asked as I sat down in a chair.

"Si. Ella es. Por..." (Yes. She is. But..)

"But what...?"

"She may never walk again. Part of a fragment is lodged between parts of her spine. We can attempt to surgically remove it, but there is a good chance that she may never walk." I looked up at her, then I dropped my head. "I'll let you think about it. But it will have to be soon." Then she left. I stood up and headed outside to call Sonny. When I got outside I dialed Sonny's number.

"Hello?" Sonny's groggy voice came threw. I had a feeling I had woken him up.

"Sonny. It's Rachel. There's a problem." I said hoping that he'd wake up.

"I'm a wake. What wrong? Where are you? Are you okay?" Now it was my turn to tell him to shut up.

"Sonny get down to the hospital. It's Courtney." Then I hung up the phone, walked back inside and sat back down next to her, crying yet again. My black tank top soaked threw with my tears. "Hey...I'm sorry...Just wake up for me please." I sat there crying for the next ten minutes.

"Rach?" Sonny said softly as he walked up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. Sonny's leg was in a cast so he had to use crutches to walk, I didn't jump when he put his hand on me.

"Hi." I looked up at him with a red face. "Sonny let's go out to the waiting room so I can explain." I stood up and walked behind him to the waiting room.

It was 3:30 in the morning and the waiting room was eerily empty. The walls had no color so they didn't seem to talk back, no expression, no active mind. The waiting room seemed almost like hell except it was white. I explained everything the nurse had told me.

"Sonny where do we go from here? Do we tell them to do the surgery or do we tell Courtney she'll never be able to walk again?" I said a little pissed off and not understanding why God had done this to our family.

"Rachel, we tell them to do the surgery and we pray that God will hold up his end of the deal. Then that way we won't have to tell Courtney that she'll never be able to walk again. I promise everything is going to be okay." He kissed the top of my forehead as he made the promise. We sat just like that for a couple of minutes thinking and wondering if we were making the right decision for Courtney.

"Sonny what if..." Then he interrupted me.

"NO! No what if's. Got me. She's going to pull through this. She's a Corinthos. We are a strong family, and she's strong. She'll pull through this." He wrapped his arms around me as if he were trying to protect me from getting hurt from my worst fears coming true. I looked out the window from over his shoulder. The sun was coming up.

"Sonny I have to go...Call me with any changes." I hurriedly grabbed my stuff, kissed his cheek and then left.

"What the hell was that all about?" He said to himself as he turned around and looked out the window. He figured it out within seconds though. "She's going to the cliffs." He said aloud to nobody. Indeed I was, except this time the cliffs where in Puerto Rico. I had Johnny drive me up there.

"Thanks Johnny. Listen, if Stephen asks where I am will you bring him up here? I'll call you when I am ready to come back. Oh and John, thank you. You mean a lot to me." I said as I got out the car.

"Rachel, are you okay? You never call me John unless something is wrong. What is going on?" He was right I never called him John unless something was wrong or if I needed something done.

"I know. And you never call me Rachel unless you know something is wrong. I'm just unsure about Courtney, that's all. I promise I won't do anything dumb. Bye Johnny." I said witha smile as I climbed over a couple of rocks and threw some trees before I came to where I wanted to be.

Meanwhile back in town, Sonny had told the doctors "our" decision about the surgery. Jason and the others had now joined him at the hospital. Sonny had filled them in about the fragments in Courtney's back and of 'our' choice to have the surgery done.

"Johnny, where's Rachel?" Stephen asked as he joined the group.

"Well she said that if you asked then I was to take you to her. Come on lets go." Johnny answered not really answering the question.

"Boss, I'm taking Stephen to see Rachel. Call me if you need me." Johnny was the type of person that put others needs before his own.

"Fine. Stephen take care of her, she needs somebody stable right now."

"I know Sonny. I'll be there for her and she knows it." Stephen said as he put a hand on Sonny's shoulder and then left.

Up on the cliffs...

I looked out over the city and then turned back around and looked out over the ocean. It seemed to go on for forever.

"Rach you okay?" I jumped sky high as Stephen came around the corner.

"Christ. You could of killed me! Don't ever sneek up on a lady who is packing heat. You could easily get yourself in trouble." I said as I flashed him the metal hidden under my shirt. I walked over to him and whacked his shoulder in a playful moodwith my small hand bag.

"Believe me. I'm understanding that." He said as he pointed towards my shoulder and started lightly laughing.

"I just needed to think and figure out things. That's all." I said more calmly as I grabbed his arm and pulled it around my waist, being careful to bypass the arm in the sling. "It's beautiful isn't it." I said as I looked out over the ocean.

"Yes...Yes you are." He said as I felt him staring at the back of my head.

He spun me around and pulled my head towards his. He kissed me with so much power I almost fell down, his kisses made me weak in the knees. I dropped my purse adn brought my hand up to his cheek and started to crease it. He brought both his hands up to my ponytail, pulled it out and then shoved his hands into my lose locks of 'golden' hair, as he had called it. I pulled back and looked at him with hungry eyes.

"Stephen..." I said somewhat out of breath. "We can't...at least not yet. I'm not ready to be with you yet. Please understand." I looked at him and hoped he didn't mind. I lvoed him I just wasn't sure I could trust myself with him yet. Now with what had happened with Max. I just needed more time. The time would come sooner then I thought.

"Baby. I'll wait forever for you. Just know this...I'm never going to push you into doing something you're not ready for. I completely understand. Rachel Alexandra Corinthos I think I'm falling in love with you." He said as he rubbed his thumb over my cheek. "You don't have to say anything back, if you don't want to but I wanted you to know how I feel." I turned around and looked out over the ocean as I thought about how to tell him I had fallen for him as well. I pulled his arms around me again as I went into a deep thought.

"Please don't ever leave me." I randomly said not really sure why I said it.

"I promise." Then he kissed my cheek. We stood there for a good fiveminutes, silence between us bit not minding because we didn't have to say anything to happy.

Buzz...Buzz...Buzz...My phone was vibrating in my purse.

"I have to get that." I said as I bent down to pick up my purse. I really didn't want to leave the comfort of Stephen's arms but business is just that, business. The previous thoughs I had been having went away.

"Corinthos." I said as I tried to juggle my purse in my left hand and my phone in my good hand.

"She's awake. Come back." Was all I heard and I figured it was either Sonny or Jason.

"We got to go now!" I said as I looked up at him. "We'll talk later I promise." I kissed him and dragged him back to where Johnny was waiting. "Step on it Johnny!" I said before we even had the door closed.

Ten minutes later I was sitting next to Courtney, with Stephen behind me with one arm draped around my shoulder. We hadn't said anything to each other on the car ride to the hospital, we just sat and held each others hands.

"I heard you." She said in a raspy voice. The doctors must of just taken the tube out of her throat minutes before we had gotten to the hospital, because she was having a hard time talking. "I heard what you said. You said you love him." She said with a smileon her face as she must of seen Stephen's surprised face before I did.

"You...You love me!" He said slightly confused as to why I hadn't said anything before.

"Yes." I said softly and hung my head. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything before. I wasn't sure how to respond because I was still coping with what had happened with Max. I thought I loved him except that I didn't. I fell for you. Please don't be mad at me for not saying anything before." I said hoping he wouldn't be mad.

"Be mad at you. Baby, I just found out that you love me. I could never be mad at you. I'm a little confused, but I love you and you love me and nothing will happen until you are ready, I promise." He kissed me then pulled me to a standing positioin and then wrapped his arms around me. It may have only been a couple of days but there were things about my past that I told Stephen that I hadn't ever told Sonny. In return Stephen told me things about his family that he held near and dear to his heart that he had never told anybody else.

Man I had fallen for the right guy this time. At least he wasn't going to push me like Max had done so many times before. Even if I told Max I didn't want to have sex with him he's push me until I couldn't say no anymore. Max may have been a man but, he never liked me for me he only wanted what he couldn't have and that was love from a person who deserved what he thought to be love. To me Stephen is twice the man Max ever was and for that I will never try to push that man away. What a lot of people didn't understand about me, not even Sonny or Jason, was that if I got to close to a man and I thought I could get hurt I would push him away. I don't even understand why I do the things I do but I do know that I can't let my fears of getting hurt get in the way of my happiness, or of me being with Stephen physically and emotionally.

"Rachel, can I talk to you for a minute please?" Sonny was interrupting my thought and I didn't want that because I was finally happy.

"Fine." I couldn't say no to anybody right now I was far too happy to say anything except yes. Sonny and I walked down the hallway to the waiting area, and sat down to talk.

"Rach, are you sure you love this man? I mean you thought you loved Max. I love you and all but I want you to be happy." Sonny was just looking out for my best interest and I needed him to know that I was happy and that I did indeed love Stephen.

"Sonny. I couldn't be more happy then I am now. And yes I know that you are just making sure I make the right choice with the man I want to be with. But Sonny I do love Stephen more then I think I know. Max was never truly somebody that I could trust, but I just felt like pissing you off so I started dating him." I started laughing to myslef as I remembered the first time I had told Sonny that I had a boyfriend. He hated the idea of any guy having their hands all over me; let alone one of the guys that worked for us. And that was putting it nicely. "I love you too, but I know how to be happy and you know what I foundthe other night when I took Stephen to the cliffs. I finally realized that love was suppose to be happiness. And happiness was something that Max never really gave me. He only pushed me to believe me that love was a happy medium." I said knowing that Sonny would want to kill Max when we got home.

"I'm going to kill that bastard!" Sonny was doing what I knew he would. He was famous for saying that he was going tokill people.

"I'm not telling you this sothat when we go home you have somebody make Max disappear. I'm telling you this so that you can understand what I am feeling right now,right here with Stephen. Max has no influence on me anymore and I think he knows that. Sonny I really truly love Stephen and nothing you say or do is going to change how I feel right now. Just know this I am going to take it day by day and if something happens that I don't think I can handle then I will come to you. Butforright now you have to let me make my own choices." I leaned over and kissed his cheek and gave him a huge hug.

"Okay. I'll hold you to that, you know that, don't you?"

"Yes. I do." I stood up and walked back to Courtney's room leaving Sonny sitting the waiting room.

"Okay, mum, how do I let go of my baby-girl? I love her and I want her to be happy but I just know something is going to happen. Give me a sign that everything is going to be okay." Sonny was praying and talking to mum at the same time. Little did he know that his sign would be coming in the form of a miracle.

At the same time that Sonny was praying a miracle was taking place that nobody knew about. Back in Courtney's room everybody was talk and as I entered I noticed Stephen in teh corner with Jason in front of him probably lecturing him about being good to me or else. That was Jason for ya, always taking care of people that could take care of themselves.

"Jason...Leave him alone." I said as I walked overto him and stood in frontof him.

"Oh..Hi we were just having a nice talk about...the weather." I knew Jason was lying, he would bring up the weather when he didn't want anybody to figure out what he was saying. Plus it was too muchof a pause to be the truth. I just laughed at him as I walked over to Stephen and kissed him.

"Do you want to get out of here?" I asked Stephen, Georgie, and Dillon.

"Yeah, I am so hungry I could eat a horse." Georgie said as she picked up her purse, flung it over her shoulder and hit Dillon in the middle of the forehead. We all started laughing, just as the doctor came back in the room.

"Well I have some very good news. The fragment that was in your spine, Ms. Corinthos has moved and we can get it without risking your ability to walk." Doctor Mastine said as Sonny came hobbling in.

"That's great but how did it move without her feeling it?" Sonny asked the doctor but looked at Courtney.

"Well, I am guessing that when the tube was oulled out it push on something because now the fragment is not longer in a place that is too difficult to get to." Doctor Mastine replied as she checked Courtney's charts and put them back on the end of the bed.

"See Sonny there can be happines when you least expect it." I said and he knew that I was talking about my love life.

"Well, Courtney if you are up to it we can surgically remove it now or we can wait and see what it does. So what do you want to do?" Doctor Mastine was now talking only to Courtney.

"Um...Lets go for it." Courtney was ready for surgery and didn't even think twice about it.

"Alright then. I will have the O.R. prepped and ready for you in twenty minutes. So if the rest of you don't mind waiting outside. I'm going to talk to Courtney and get her ready? In other words get out now." Doctor Mastine was a family friend and had worked on me when the house had exploded.

"Sonny, I'm taking Georgie, Dillon, and Stephen somewhere for food. Do you want anything?" I asked trying to be polite.

"No. Have fun you four. Oh and behave yourselves." Sonny said the last part as a threat to Stephen and I but Dillon and Georgie took it to heart as well.

Twenty minutes later the four of us were up on the cliffs and eating take out from a Mexican restaurant in the middle of town. Dillon was laughing at something Stephen had said and I was laughing with Georgie after she had told me about what Dillon had done to tell his family that he was gone. Now this is what a good time felt like, I hadn't laughedlike this in so long I think I had forgotten how. Max never allowedme to have a good time, so this feltso good. I just wasn't going to tell anybody, I was just going to enjoy it.


	10. Chapter 10

_Okay so here is another chapter. I think this story is going to be about fifteen chapters maybe more. But I am trying my hardest to figure out if I have found the right stoping point for each chapter so that is what is taking a long time. This chapter shouldn't be very long so this one will go quickly I hope. Once again thank you for the reviews, keep them coming. Read and enjoy.  
_**Disclaimer: I own nothing except characters unknown. ENJOY!**

* * *

Ten days later and three explanations as to where their children were, everybody was back in Port Charles. One thing that I didn't expect was that Stephen would want nothing more then just be happy sitting next to me. I couldn't remember the last time a guy just wanted to sit with me, they all wanted what they knew they couldn't get. Stephen had since told his parents that I was his girlfriend, and they were fine with it. We had to tell his mother and then his father about the island without giving away what had actually happened. The thing was I don't think Stephen told them what had happened on the island, which was probably a good thing, since we wanted to stay together. 

Mac had grounded Georgie till 'pigs fly' which would be never, and Dillon's brother Ned hadn't really noticed that he was gone so I guess it was hopeless to assume that we had to tell him anything. Courtney was doing better but she was told to stay in bed for the next two weeks, so she was miserable and that made me ugly so everybody else was ugly. I honestly didn't khno whow people put up with me when I was so pissed off, I guess they had just become so use to it that it didn't bother them.

Georgie, Dillon, Stephen, and I went back to school the following day only to be teased the whole day about where we had been for the past couple of weeks.

"Rachel and Stephen are a couple? No way, he wouldn't ever date a girl like that she's too..." I happened to walk up behind a group of girls who were talking and I heard my name soI stuck around.

"I am too what? Too much unlike you girls?" I said as I made almost the whole group jump. "You know, you guys should be happy I heard you because if it had been my brother or maybe even Jason, you would probably have a black eye. Oh and by the way my love life is none of your damn business so if you don't mind I would like to get to my locker." I sais as I pushed through the group to where my locker was. I always felt much better after I had said something to the girls that didn't like me.

"You are such a.." One of them started the sentence and I finished it.

"A bitch. Yeah I know, everyone tells me that. You know what though? I have a feeling people are saying that about you as well. So here's a suggestion for you, find a new hobby because if you contiune to say things to me or about me, you will be sorry." I had just enough of the girls so i just kept walking, ignoring the dirty looks they were giving me.

"Hey you." Stephen said as he wrapped his arms around me from behind and kissed teh side of my face.

"Hi baby. How are you?" I said as I kept walking with his arms around my waist.

"I'm happy and in love. How about you?" He said as I could tell he was smiling.

"I'm happy and in love as well, soI guess we're good." I said as we both started laughing.

"Hey you two. What's up?" We walked over to Dillon and Georgie, who were at her locker.

"Not much just getting all my homework for the weekend. And you?" Georgie said and you could tell that she was depressed about having to stay home over the weekend. Usually Dillon, Georgie and I did something over the weekend, but since the island Mac wouldn't let her out of his sight let alone out of the house.

"Georgie, maybe if I explain to Mac what happened and that it was my fault maybe he would let you out for teh weekend? I mean Stephen and I are going to the dance tonight, and we were going to ask Dillon if he could get work off, so he could join us. But then I was thinking that it wouldn't be the same without you. Please! I'll talk to Mac! Say yes. PLEASE!" I gave her my world re-nouned puppy dog face, it didn't help much that the boys were doing it too. We all knew she couldn't ever say no to the puppy dog face.

"I'll see but I can't promise you anything. Oh stop that look you know that if I look at you for too long I can't say no." Georgie was starting to laugh and I probably would have laughed as well if I was an onlooker.

"Coem on you guys lets go before we cause a scene." Dillon said as if he knew Georgie was beginning to become uncomfortable.

"But I already made one." I said and then laughed at the three faces that looked back at me. "I'm kidding...Well sort of." I laughed then walked passed them and out the door.

"What did you do?" Stephen came up behind me in theparking lot smirking.

"Oh nothing." I said then proceeded to explain to them what I had said to the girls in the hallway. "Come on. I'll drop you two off at Georgie's." I said as I unlockedmy car and opened thefront door.

We hadn't been able to convince Mac to let Georgie go to the dance, so we watched movies at the penthouse; where Mac knew there would be guards at the door and that she would be safe. He wouldn't admit it but he knew that she would be safe around Stephen and me. I had Stephen rent any and every old black and white movie the store had. The only thing that I remember before I must of fallen asleep was, that we were laughing at Sonny's face as he walked in tosee how we were doing. I may have lived just across the hall from him but he always made a habit of just _dropping_ by.

When I woke up the following morning I was by myself, blanket tucked tightly around me, and I was on my couch. I opened my eyes, ran my hand threw my hair, looked around and noticed Stephen. He was asleep in the oversized e-z chair across the room. As I stood up I pulled the oversized t-shirt I had on, down, since it had moved, exposing my belly button, and the diamond stud in my belly button and my black lace underwear. I usually wore a t-shirt and a pair of shorts but all my shorts were dirty. I walked out to the terrace to think about how truly happy I was that nothing could bother me. When I opened the door and curtains/shades I realized it had to be at least 6:30 on the morning. I spun a round real quick and looked at Stephen, who was wear a pair of low rise gray, tie, sweat pants and a white tank top. His parents must be going nuts, which would mean that they would start askingquestions. I turned around, walked out to the balcony, as I stood there I began to feel my mothers arms around me and her sweet nothings that she use to say to get me to go to bed.

"Good morning Sweetheart. How did you sleep?" Stephen asked as he came walking out carrying the blanket withhim. Imight have been wearing a t-shirt but it was still the midddle of February and yet it felt like May.

"Pretty good. Do yourparents know that you spent the night here?" I said as I kissed him and turnedback around.

"Yea. Here you go." He said as he wrapped the blanket around the both of us, he wrapped his arms around my cold waist and held the blanket in place. "I called them last night after georgie and Dillon left. You know you talk in your sleep?" He stated instead of asked. He started laughing at my embarrassed and surprise face. I could feel my face turning three different shades of red.

"What did I say?" I asked as I tried to hide my face in the blanket.

"You don't need to be embarrassed. You only said that you love me and Sonny needed to do something, but I can't remember what else you said. I love you." He said as he leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

"Well, good, but it was probably about business, which means you can't know. I'm sorry." I said as I turnedaround to look at him, I wrapped my arms around his waist and placed my head against his chest. "Baby, I wish I could tell you so much more but you have to understand that in order for me to know that you aresafe you can't know. I love you, baby never forget that." The conversation had suddenly turned from goofy to serious. However, in the back of my mind I knew that itneeded to be said, the explanation as to how much he could and couldn't know.

"I know. I also understand that when Sonny or Jason come over and I'm sent up the stairs or on an errand it's only to protect me. I respect all of you for it because all of you and I'm not just talking about your brother or Jason I'm talk about Georgie and Dillon as well. You all were the first people to your arms to me andI think that is what attracted me to you, Georgie and Dillon. But you know that's not why I fell for you. I mean you are beautiful, smart, a wise ass, open minded, and the list goes on forever but I think that you get the point." At this point I had dropped my head, and my hand from around his waist and backed away slightly so I could take his hand in mine and was lookingat my hand entangled with his. I hated when people said nice thinsg about me, I think maybe it was because I wasn't use to it; he placed a finger on my chin and forced me to look up at him. "Baby, I'm not going anywhere, anytime soon. Please don't worry about me being safe, although I know you will, because that is the type of caring person that you are. I have you and you are the only one I want to be with. Please don't worry about me.I will always love you." I was crying and you know what it was a happy cry, it wasn't a sad or mad cry. It was something that I had never experienced. When I went to say something I couldn't get teh words to get out of my throat I was frozen, and he stopped me from saying anything. If somebody had been listening to this they probably would have thought he was going to ask me to marry him, but that wasn't it. "Just promise me that you will always be honest with me. I love you, Rachel Alexandra." He hadn't called me by my full name since the island, but you know what? It just proved to me that it wasn't some kind of act, he was really feeling these things. "Now, get in that kitchen and make me something to eat, I'm hungry." I wiped my eyes and then started laughing but I whacked him a good one for demanding me to do something. He knew better then that, but I knew he was was trying to make me laugh. We both started laughing, one, because of his act to be 'hurt' but it wasn't happening , and second for the way he made me laugh.

"I love you, too, Stephen Crump." I said as I kissed him and chuckled when he slightly shivered at the touch. I kissed him so hard we almost fell on the floor.

"You two need to stop!" We hadn't heard Courtney come down the stairs so when she spoke, we both jumped so far apartthat we couldn't reach out our arms and toucheach other.

"Aren't you suppose to be in bed? The doctor said bed rest. I told the doctor and Sonny that I'd make sure that you stayed there. Now, back up the stairs and back in bed!" I said as I picked up the blanket from the floor, folded it, and put it back on the couch. trying to avoid eye contact with her, I was little ashamed that she had seen me kissing Stephen like that.

"Geeze, I only came down for a glass of water." She said then turned and looked at Stepphen. "Make sure you never get sick. She is just as bad, if not worse then Sonny. Just be careful." Stephen started laughing, and then quickly stopped when I shot him a look of disapproval.

"COURTNEY! UPSTAIRS NOW AND YOU DON'T LEAVE THAT BED UNTIL THE DOCTOR SAYS SO!" I yelled and I'm sure that Sonny and the guards outside the door could hear me. I pointed up the stairs and gave her the look that said if you do not get up those stairs I will have Sonny carry you up them. (Which was a look she hated so very much.)

"Fine. Good luck with her, she is one tough cookie. Love ya sis." She said as she "ran" up the stairs.


	11. Chapter 11

Sorry it took so long for this chapter, I had a huge paper for school I had to do. I have broken down the chapters further so I should just be able to type them up and get them posted as soon as possible. Please keep reviewing and reading.  
**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except the characters unknown. ENJOY!**

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It had been two months since the blood shed occurred and for the time being everything was going good. There had been two attempts on the Corinthos family since we had returned but they were minor and were handled within minutes of being tried. One from Sage, Lorenzo's niece and one from Max's family, not understanding the break up. However, in my eyes it was none of their damn business. Sonny and I told Max's family that if they didn't stop with the threats it would be more then just another attack it would be a war of the families. 

Stephen and I couldn't be happier, he had started working for Sonny at the wearhouse that Jason and he owned, and sold coffee beans to other countries, from. I did work and co-own the "coffee" warehouse with them but I rarely worked at the warehouse. His parents didn't like the idea at first but they learned that he would only be working on the vehicles and not in contact with the shipments or the shippers they were much happier. We only had two months left till school was out and that made us even more happier because then we knew that he was going to move in to the penthouse with me. Courtney had since moved out after the doctor gave her the okay to get out of bed. And let me tell you, we were more then willing to help her move, she and I had since become more of friends then sisters, because having to put up with me made her crazy and me putting up with her nagging about things getting done, drove me crazy. So Sonny, Jason, Courtney and I thought it best that she move into a safe-house on the other side of town where she could get the rehab she needed and I could get the peace and quite I needed.

After Courtney moved out, I asked Mac if Georgie could move in me and that way he wouldn't have to feel like he had to leave work every minute of every day to make sure she was okay. He didn't like the idea at first but after a week or two he saw that she was much more happier being around her friends, then being "kept locked in her room all day." Georgie had said one day after I told her my idea about the move.

Georgie knew that once school was out that Stephen would be moving in and she was fine with it, because I had told Dillon the same thing, that when school was out he could move in as well. He hated living at the Quartermaines but his mother was in town and he knew that he had to stay at the mansion to make her happy. He had to prove that he was getting along with her family. See Dillon was Jason's cousin, what happened is a long story, but here's the short version. Jason was a Quartermaine, but was in an accident caused by his brother AJ, (yes, Michel's biological father), lost his memory and never regained it. He knows who they all are, but he doesn't remember the love he felt for them. But with Dillon and Emily he didn't feel pushed to remember, he could be himself. The accident happened a little over seven years ago, but his father and mother never stopped pushing him to remember.

It was weird when Dillon told us that his mother was in town, since the last time that Tracy was in town she didn't tell Dillon and it was when we were on the island, which like I said had only been two months before. Tracy made it a habitof just showing up out of the blue and expecting people to open their arms to her but she knew better then that. So to say the least she was not a happy camper when she came home to find her _precious_ Dillon not home. I felt bad for Dillon, because when Tracy came home he wasn't "allowed" to see Georgie. Tracy didn't approve of their relationship, she thought that Dillon was too good for Georgie; even though she was never around to see how happy they were together. Dillon and Georgie still saw each other when he would come over for the weekly supper dinners held at Sonny's. Tracy never learned of the dinners, she was never around long enough to find out. If she knew, she would most likely take Dillon with her when she left town the next time. And we couldn't risk that happening.

Every Friday since we had returned all of us, Jason, Courtney, Georgie, Dillon, Carly, Michel, Morgan, Sonny, Stephen, and I got together at either Sonny's place or mine for pizza and movies. Sometimes Emily would come then she would leave right before the movie. This one event made all of us feel more and more like family.

I had woken up this morning after only four hours of sleep to find Stephen not laying next to me. It was Saturday and he and Dillon usually spent the weekend at the penthouse with Georgie and I. Saturday was going to be a lazy day. The four of us had had a hard week of school and with family issues, so we decided that we were going to stay in tonight and watch movies. As I climbed out of bed I looked over to the bedside table where Stephen usually kept his cell phone plugged in, but his phone and work clothes, that he brought with him where gone. Ever time he spent the night at the penthouse he brought his work clothes with him, in case Sonny called and needed him down at the warehouse. I could never figure out why he didn't just leave a change of work clothes at the penthouse, he had already brought over most of his clothes from his parents hosue.

"Damn you Sonny!" I thought, Sonny had called him into work this morning. "That's life." I said aloud as I walked over to the bedroom door opened it and walked out into the hallway.

I was wearing a pair of Stephen's boxer pants and a black tank top. Stephen was always leaving his clothes in plain view soI decided that if he left them where I could see them I would wear them. They were clean. They were pretty damn comfy and he wasn't going to get them back. I chuckled to myself as I wondered if anybody else was up yet. But as I walked downstairs I didn't see or hear anybody. Guess not. I could smell coffee brewing he must of just left. More coffee for me I thought to myself. I walked into the kitchen, hauled my ass on to the nearest barstool, reached across the bar, grabbed a coffee cup and poured myself a cup of hot freshly brewed coffee.

"Good morning Rach. Coffee hot?" Dillon said as he walked into the kitchen in a pair of sweat pants and nothing else.

"Yup. Hey, you don't happen to know when Stephen left do you?" I said as I took a sip of coffee. Dillon started laughing at the sour face I made.

"What's the face for?" He asked as he couldn't stop laughing at the expression I made.

"Needs cream and sugar. That's all." I said as I walked to the refrigerator. Usually I drank my coffee black but Stephen made strong coffee so there was no drinking it black.

"Oh and no I don't know when he left. Listen, Georgie and I are going to do a little shopping today, but we'll be back for the movies. I promise. What time were we going to watch them?" He asked as he took a donut out of the bread box and bit into it.

"Well I was thinking seven-ish. I think. I mean if that's okay with you?"

And that was how my morning had gone and now hereI was sitting at the bar two hours later with a somewhat cold cup of coffee. It was ten and I was still in pj's and tired as hell. I had been up until four this morning ironing out details at the warehouse that Max had screwed up to get back at me for dumping him. He would never get the idea that I just didn't love him like I use too. I loved Stephen.

Ring...Ring...Ring.. The phone was going off it was bring me out of my nonsense thoughts. It had been a late night the night before so I hadn't heard the phone ring the first time.

"Hello?" I wasn't in the mood to be talking on the phone but nobody else was home, Dillon and Georgie had left a good half an hour before and Stephen wasn't back yet.

"Hey Rach. It's Emily. Would you mind coming over? I need to talk to somebody." Emily was not quite a year older then me but shealways wanted to talk to me about whatever she could.

"Hi. Yeah sure but give me an hour. Meet me at Kelly's for a late breakfest." I said as I put down my cup of coffee.

"Alright, I'll see you there. Talk to you later." Then we both hung up. After I got off the phone with her I realized it would actually be lunch by the time we would get there.

"Stephen!" I hollered from the kitchen. I had heard the front door open and the thop, thop, of his big steel toed boots across the hard wood floors of the living room.

"What's up babe?" He asked as he came walking into the kitchen, looking like a grease monkey,

"You been working for Sonny." I stated as he walked over to me, gave me a kiss, and washed his hands in the sink.

"Yup. So what's going on? You look like hell."

"Thanks babe." I knew he was being sarcastic. "Well, Emily just called and she needs to talk so I'm going to meet her at Kelly's in about an hour. So I'm going to go get in the shower. Will you listen for the phone if it rings?" I said as I rinsed out the cup of half drank, cold coffee.

"Sorry babe. Sonny needs me back at the pier in twenty minutes. It's break that's why I'm back I wanted to see you before I had to go back. Besides, Sonny said something about a shipment coming in tonight." He said as he kissed me and walked out the door. I knew what that meant, he had to make sure that everything was up to par, nothing had been tampered with between the time he had left and the time it took him to get back to Pier Seventy-Two.

There were forty two piers along the water front of Port Charles. Usually each pier was given a name after a merchant bought it, like; Port View or Elizabeth Queen. However, Pier Seventy-Two was known to a lot of the merchants as mob territory so most of them stayed clear. That was also why Marie and Aurther Crump (Stephen's parents) didn't like the idea when Stephen told them the pier number he was going to be working at. I didn't blame them either I didn't like the idea any more then they did, but it was what he wanted to do so I didn't push him to quiet.

Twenty minutes later I was getting out of the shower and rummaging through my closet to find something to wear. My hand ran over the same thing every other hanger, jeans, t-shirts, and the one nice, nice piece of clothing I owned and yet couldn't wear in public...My red leather, v-back, tie front, halter top. I had worn itonly once and that was on a date with Max (a stay in date.)

"Dammit!" I swore out oud. "I don't have anything nice to wear to Kelly's." Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, my nice presentable clothes were in the hall closet. I had moved them out there in an effort to make room for some of Stephen's clothes. I ran out to the closet and found what I was looking for. The perfect outfit that was comfortable, warm, and could easily be worn with jeans. It was a long sleeve, tight around me waist, v-neck, shirt, black in color, that Stephen had bought me from Old Navy a month ago.

Ten minutes later I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, dressed in the black shirt and low rise hip hugger jeans, that exposed where my wheres and waist met and my black knee high stiletto riding boots. To finish of the **"Mob Sister"** look, I was in the process of trying to figure out how to pull my hair back. I usually wore it in a ponytail or a messy bun, but today I wanted to do something different, however, it wasn't working.

"Screw it!" I yelled into the mirror and hurriedly pull it into a ponytail. I then pulled out the first drawer that held all the make-up that Georgie and I owned. Mascara, lipstick, eye shadow, eye liner, lip liner, conselor, foundations, powders, brushes, eye curler, you name it I could probably find it in the bottomless pit known only to Georgie and I as _organized_. I pulled out the mascara, eye liner, a light shade of brown eye shadow, and a brush and then placed them on the counter. I looked down at the oversized wrist brand watch from Abercrombie & Fitch that Sonny had bought me for Christmas.

"Holy SHIT!" I didn't realize I only had ten minutes to put on my make-up, get on and off the elevator, find my car, and drive to Kelly's, which was another fifteen minutes away. "Emily will understand." I calmly said as I rushed through the mascara process.

As I finished doing my make-up I pulled out the second drawer and once again rummaged through the hair appliances to the secret compartment on the bottom. When I first moved into the penthouse I had the compartment installed so I could keep a spare .45 in the bottom in case of emergencies. Plus there were days when I was too lazy to walk all the way to my bedroom to get the one I kept in the bedside table. After I felt the bottom pop, I reached in and pulled out the gun, closed the drawer, lifted my right leg up on the counter, unzipped my boot part way, pulled out the ankle holster, zipped up the boot again, and safetly places the gun in the holster. ("You can never be to careful these days," Sonny had told me one day before I left on a _business_ trip. It also happened to be the day that he gave me my first-forty five.)

"Alright." I said as I took one last look in the mirror before shutting off the lights, walking downstairs for my coat and purse and leaving.

Twenty minutes later I was sitting at a table inside Kelly's Diner, drinking a hot cocoa, and eating a bowl of chili, while I waited for Emily to show up.

"Hey Mike, can I please have another cup of cocoa?" I half said, half yelled from about ten feet away.

"Sure thing Angel." Mike was in his mid-fifties and anybody who didn't know the relationship we shared would have thought that he was hitting on me, which wasn't the case. Ever since I had come to town Mike had been my father figure. I mean don't get me wrong, Mike had his flaws but they weren't anything I couldn't handle. I mean come on, look at the type of day job I have, Mike was a piece of cake compared to that. Mmmm. Cake sounded good right now.

"Here you sweetheart." He said as he set the hot cup in front of me and pulled outthe chair across the table from me. "Just the way you like it...Extra, extra whip cream on top." He said with a smile as he sat down.

"Oh, Mike this is great, thank you. How are you?" I asked as I looked over the top of my mug and through my glasses. (If I hadn't mentioned it before, I needed glasses but usually wore contacts. Except this morning in the rush to meet Emily I lost one of them and didn't want to spend another ten minutes looking for it, so I just threw on my glasses.) Mike was aging nicely, but he did have a head of gray hairs which I guess made him more believable as being in his fifties.

"Not to bad. But I do have a question for you." He looked up as if he needed my permission to ask the question.

"Shoot." I said in between bits of chili, which hadn't cooled off much in five minutes time, but I was hungry so I ate it.

"Well I was wondering you had talked to your brother today?" It hit me like a brick wall, when he referred to Sonny as my 'brother.' Mike always called him Michael. I shock my head no and continued to eat my lunch.

"Why do you ask? Did something happen, is he okay?" A hundred and one scenarios went through my mind at once that something bad had happened.

"No...I--I mean he's okay, but we--we kind of had another fight. I just wasn't sure if he had said anything or not. But if you haven't talk to him then don't worry about it. Okay, well I hope whomeveryou are waiting for shows up. I've got to get back to work. Talk to you later. I love you Angel remember that. Always." And justlike that he was gone and Emily was sitting in the seat he had just vacated.

"Hey. What was that all about?" Emily asked as she looked overher shoulder at Mike's back. I looked at her as I started playing with my diamond studded necklace I was given after my mother died.

"Oh, he and Sonny had yet another fight. Anyways, what is going on? Why the rush to get over here?" I said as I pushed the two cups in front of me out my reach, and leaned on the edge of the table.

"Oh well...I--I was kind of hoping that you'd come with me to the city with me." She asked as she looked down at her hands, probably afraid to be asking. "Zander is takig me out tonight and he said that it was black tie, expect I don't have anything 'black tie' wear. So will you come with me? PLEASE!" Emily was the type of person that you couldn't say no to or she'd take it personally.

"Fine, but wait...Zander...The kid from the rave...Whoa. Wait a minute. When did this happen?" I said shacking my head trying to comprehend the things she was saying. I guess in everything that had happened in the past couple of months, I hadn't realized that Benny had stopped wearing his necklace that Emily had given him for his birthday.

"Yes. Okay and before you say anything, he isn't just the 'kid from the rave,' he means more to me. And before you try and convice me otherwise..." I held up my pointer finger to stop her from rambling on about something that really wasn't my business.

"Emily...Emily. Wait a minute. Nevermind the details. I'll go with you but don't you have a dress at the mansion that you could wear? I mean you'd look good in anything, why bother going out and buying a dress you'll only wear once? Unless that's the point?" I gave her my famous "cat-got-your-tongue" sideways look. You look the one, a half-assed cat grin and glossy eyes, yet the excitment was there, that look.

"RACHEL CORINTHOS!" She half yelled, half shirked with that girly squeal that every girl did at least oncein her life. "You aren't by any change suggesting that I'm going to sleep with him are you?" Now hervoice had lowered to a hushed whisper.

"No, but now that you've brought it up..." I said as I laughedat the shocked expression Emily was giving me.

Emily was a little taller then me (and when I say little I mean maybeby half an inch. But she never let me forget who was taller.) She had mousy brown hair, that ended just below her waist line, a small rose tattoo on her left ankle, her bellybuttonwas pierced, and she had what a lot of people called 'ocean blue green eyes.' It made a lot of people sick because she was so pretty. If you looked at her and didn't know who she was you'd probably mistake herfor a model that had just stepped off the pages ofsome fashion magazine.

"Alright, if we're going to Brooklyn then let's go already. I have to be back by seven though because the four of us are having a lazy night tonight. And of course you have your date." I said as I pushed my chair back to stand up. "I'll drive." I said, knowing full well the place we were driving through was not going to be easy. Besides, I didn't trust Emily driving my car, she'd had one, too many accidents since getting her license two and half years ago.

Brooklyn was a little over forty five minutes from Port Charles so by the time we left Kelly's and got on the highway it was close to noon. I always loved driving to Brooklyn because it reminded me so much of a part of Maine that I lived in, before I came to Port Charles. Don't get me wrong no place is my mind was as beautiful as Maine in the fall, but Brooklyn came close when Christmas come around.


	12. Chapter 12

Okay so here we go. Please review. Thank you for the reviews I am glad that you all are liking this story. Please keep it up. So sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up.

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except characters unknown. ENJOY!**

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Four hours, six hundred twenty three dollars and ninety two cents later, Emily had found the perfect dress. It was sleeveless, maroon and red colored, tight in all the right places, and floor length. I knew, along with all the other customers in Bloomingdale's that, that dress had been made just for her. Zander was going to be happy with the outcome, and he was going to completely understand what people meant when they said the word "**priceless.**" 

We got back to Kelly's around five, which gave her just enough time to go back to the mansion, and get ready before Zander showed up around seven thirty. As I was driving back to the apartment complex, I realized that spring was right around the corner. It was April but it had been in the mid- thirties the past three weeks which made people wonder if spring was ever going to come. I stopped at a red light and looked out the passenger side window and saw the trees staring to bloo and what looked like flower buds coming up from the ground. I smiled as I thought about the months ahead, summer vacation from school, Stephen and Dillon moving in, my nephew's first birthday, thanksgiving, and my birthday. At that moment life was looking pretty damn good. Nothing could possibly make my good mood go away, I was enjoying life in a way that was once lost to me.

When I walked into my own living room it didn't look anything like it had when I left this morning. There were candles lit everywhere, rose petals all over the floor and furniture, and the lights where turned off. I even turned around to walk back out the door, to make sure I had the right penthouse. Yet when I turned around the only person home was standing between me and the door, dressed in a tux and holding a long stem red rose.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed and jumped when I first saw him because I didn't think anybody was home.

"Do you like your surprise?" Stephen asked as he turned on the music with the remote in his hand. As I turned around to do a double take of the red and white rose petals everywhere, candles lit in every nook and cranny, the low sounds of Faith Hill and Tim McGraw singing and him in a tux. It was almost too much for me to handle at once.

"Baby...Like it? I love it! And..." I said as I walked into his arms. "I love you. What's with the surprise anyways? I mean, not that I mind, but I thought that tonight was suppose to be a lazy night?" I said as I kissed him and looked around again.

"Well, I told Georgie and Dillon my plan and they wanted to go along with it. And I wanted to surprise you becasue we never really got a first date. So I thought..." He stopped and looked down at his hands with embarrassment. "I'd bring the date to you. Besides, I think we need a little alone time. Oh," he started as if he'd forgotten something important. "Why don't you go upstairs and change. More of the surprise is yet to come. Now upstairs. Go." He said as he pointed towards the stairs, and I followed the orders with a salute and a smile.

As I walked down the hallway I pulled off my shirt and threw it on the floor, then the boots, hoping on one foot to get each off. When I got to the bedroom I noticed a card taped to the outside of the door, with the words: _Open Me_, on it. Inside was written: _" Follow the clues to claim your prize. Open the door to reveal your first of many."_ I lowered my hand to the door knob, turned it and pushed the door open, at the same time. As I walked in I gasped at teh sight in front of me. Laid out on the bed was a two piece, white silk dress, with red lace over it, and a pair of red stiletto, open toed shoes. The top tied in the middle of my back, but ended four inches above my belly button, and the bottom zippered up the side, ending just below my belly button.

Five minutes later I was standing in front of the full length mirror admiring the way the top hugged my body in all the right palces, and how the bottom fell just above the floor but with enough cover to only reveal my toes. I had taken my hair down just becasue that was how he like it. As I turned around to go back downstairs, another note caught my attention. It was taped to the back side of the door. Inside read: "To meet your match open the top drawer on his side of the bed. Then I will meet you outside." As I tried to run to his bedside table I almost tripped over my own two fee, I wasn't use to wearing dresses let alone one this pretty. I pulled out the drawer to reveal a beautiful diamond necklace staring back at me. (It was a chain of diamonds with three tiers hanging from the middle.) And yet another note; onky this one was the last. This one said: _"Do not open until I see you, put on the necklace and come down the stairs soI can see how amazing you look. I love you and can't wait to see you. -S"_

As I walked down the stairs, carrying the note and wearing the necklace, I noticed the terrece doors were open, allowing agentle breeze to sway throughout the room. It left the room feeling more alive with Mother Natures own breath then the stiff air that was being reused. WhenI got to the open doors I stopped, took a deep breath, and ran a hand over the front of my dress to make sure that it looked okay. As I stepped through the drapes I saw him standing with his back to me, looking out over the lights of teh city. He looked so handsome, as he stood there thinging, the moon reflected his glow of happiness n to me because just seeing him there was enough to make me smile.

"I must be the luckiest women around. You know that? You're so handsome when you're thinking hard like that. What was on your mind, baby?" I said as I walked over to him as he turned around, his eyes wide, and an expression of udder shock at how I much of looked.

"Mmmm. Well, I knew it would look good, but, wow. I didn't realize just how good. Oh, my mind...um well, I was thinking that I must be living a dream because somebody like you only happens in dreams and fairy tale movies. I mean look at me, I am just some average guy with a thick southern accent and you, you are this amazing, beautiful, spunky, talented women that deserves a man of the same kind." He said as he walked around me to the open doors.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" I said as I grabbed a hold of his hand and forced him to look me in the eye. "The one thing I love about you is your accent, and that you aren't just like me, because one of me is enough to last everybody a life time. Besides, if I even wanted somebody just like me, I probably would have dumped you after the first week together. But you know what?" I asked as he shook his head 'no.' "You are the one person who actually likes the fact that I amspunky, quirky, and sometimes yes, I have my blonde moments. You have never once judged me because of what my brother's 'day job' is and you are the only guy that Sonny and Jason like, so if you go anywhere except back over to that table you are in big trouble." I jokingly said, but neither one of us laughed. "Stephen, I love you. Up 'til I met you, I am surprised that I even understood what life was or is. Let a lone what love was. You are my life and I want to live life knowing that when I roll over in the morning you'll always be there. If you actually believe that I'd want some smuck that was just like me, then you can leave, but baby you...You are the only person I love and that's the way it's going to stay." I said as I kissed the tip of his nose causing him to shiver and pulled him into a hug.

"I love you, too. Did you bring the note?" He asked as he pulled back but left his hands on my hips. I had almost forgotten about the note in my right hand.

"Yup, and I didn't open it. Stephen thank you for the dress, shoes, and necklace I will treasure them forever. Can I open the note yet?" I asked like a little kid at Christmas. We both laughed at the excitement in my voice.

"Nope." Was all he said then laughed at the depressed expression I put on. "First you have to dance with me." He said as he grabbed a hold of my hand and once again pressed play. We danced to a song by Tim McGraw, called "She's My Kind Of Rain." As the song came to an end he dropped his hands from my hand and hip, and pulled back to look at me.

"Now you may open teh note. But I'll be right back, read it while I'm gone." With that said anda kiss he disappeared inside and out of sight. I opened the folded piece of hard paper to see the last thing I expected; a love letter. It was dated the day before. I walked over to one of the chairs and sat down to read the letter that would probably melt my heart. Here is what was written inside the letter:

_April 19, 2004_

_-Rachel_

_You are the only person who knows me better then I think I know myself. I fell in love with you so quickly thatitscared me, but now I am not so scared. Everyday after I see you and I go hame, I find myself thinking ofnothingbut you. You always seem to find a way to invade my thoughts. I even called my sister your name. And believe me,I've never done that before, not with any of my other girlfriends. Rachel Alexandra Corinthos... Oh boy, how do I say this without really saying it or sounding childish..._

I wiped away a tear that had fallen.

"Baby?" I jumped so high. I looked down at the card and saw that there was nothing else written on it. I walked over to where Stephen stood, just beyong the drapes. He looked as if he'd been crying, I wish I knew why.

"What didn't you get a chance to write?" I whispered as I wiped a tear that had fallen on his face with my thumb.

"Well...um...Okay. Baby why don't you come sit down."He said as he grabbed my hand and lead me towards one of the table chairs. "Okay." He started as he kneeled down in front of me and put a hand on my knee. "Baby, I love you. You are the only person I've been able to give my soul to. Except, see there's more to it then love and soul. Do you remember the first time I talked to you? Your first words to me were, 'What can I do for Mr. Crump?'" We both laughed at his botched attempt at being me. "But you only made me fall harder and more quickly. I took it like a man and just worked even harder to be somebody that you could possibly fall in love with. And the surprising part is that you did fall in love with me. This is something I need to ask you first." He stopped, stood up and kissed me. If anybody had been watching this they probablycould have sworn he was about to ask meto marry him. "Well, here it goes. Will you be my girlfriend?"

"You goof. I already am, you didn't have to ask me to be your girlfriend." I said as I smiled, kissed him and spun aroundhappy with joy. "You know what? Nobody has ever asked me to be their girlfriend. They always just assumed that I was. But I'll never forget that you asked." I said as I looked at him in the eyes. "Baby, I love you." I kissed him again only he backed away and turned serious again.

"Rachel. I do have to ask you though. See where I come from in orderfor a couple to be classified boyfriend/girlfriend, the guy has to ask the girl first. SoI'll ask you again. Rachel Corinthos will you be mygirlfriend?" He was serious, he had the glassesover look inhis eyes that told me that he was about to cry.

"Oh Stephen." I gushed as I ran my right thumb over his cheek. "Of course I'll be your girlfriend. How could I possibly say no after all you went through to make this night perfect. Anyways, you are the only person I can give my soul to, as well. I love you and that will never change. And part of me feels like I owe you so much, not just because of all of this, " I said as I moved around him and over to the table, which I had left the note on. " I mean for everything. You have been nothing but an absolute gentleman, you haven't pushed me, you never once tried to push me away when a situation happened and you never once stopped loving me, trusting me, and lastly you never once ecpected anything from me. So you see I shoudl be the one to do something for you. I just wish I knew how to give you something like this. So now I guess I have a question for you." I wiped a tear away that had fallen on my cheek and then smiled at the beautiful though I was having. I walkerd back over to where he was standing, put my hands on his hips, kissed him and looked in his eyes. I saw the same sense of happiness and joy. "Will you be my boyfriend?" I laughed at the look on his face.

"Now who's the goof ball?" He said jokingly and kissed my face. "Yes. And now that, that is out of the way. Will you dance with me?" He asked with a half assed grin, sicne he already knew the answer.

"If I must." I said as I playfully rolled my eyes at him, but smiled, knowing that I couldn't possibly be any happier then now.

He pressed play on the remote one more time and the beautiful lyrics of Jessica Simpson's "In This Skin," came out of the speakers. I laid my head on his shoulder and noticed that the moon was full and the stars were in their place. Everything felt right and that wasn't going to change, at least not tonight.

The remainder of the night was spent dancing and talking about nothing and everything. Okay so maybe the talking part doesn't sound so romantic but to Stephen and myself it was perfect. By the time we went up to bed it was close to two in the morning; Dillon and Georgie had come home around eleven, to find Stephen and I laying on the couch just holding each other, almost passed out.


	13. Chapter 13

So thank you for the reviews. If you haven't noticed I had to change the rating on the story because of the language and volience. I hope y'all are enjoying this.  
**Diclaimer: I only own Rachel and Stephen...oh and two new guards that will appear either in the next chapter.The rest belong to ABC.**

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When I woke up the next moring I smelt French Toast and fresh brewing coffee. I thought maybe that Stephen was just planning another day of pure bliss, except when I rolled over he was still alseep. I quietly climbed out of bed, grabbed my glasses off the bedside table, threw on my bathrobe, and walked down to the kitchen.

"Mmm...That smells really good. Thanks G." I said with a smile as I sat down on one of the barstools across the counter, calling her by her nickname. Her name kept getting shorter, her real name is Georgieanna, which turned into Georgie, and now to those few who loved her it was "G." "Where's Dillon?" I asked as I stuck a piece of the toast into my mouth.

"Still asleep. Stephen?" She repiled as she hauled herself up onto the barstool next to me.

"Still in bed, snoring so loud. I swear it's almost as if there were a lumber yard right in our room." She and I started laughhing, it got so bad that we both started crying. "Wow. G, this is great." I said in between gasping for air and taking bits of food. "Where did you learn to cook? I haven't had French Toast like this since I lived in Maine. But, and I mean this in the best possible way. There is something misssing." I said as I looked at her over the top of my glasses and let out a little laugh at her surprised look.

"Strawberries and whipped cream." We both jumped as Stephen and Dillon spoke as they came dwn the stairs, both in nothing but low rise sweat pants.

"You two better be happy I don't hide my gun in the cookie jar anymore." I said as I swallowed another bite of food. "I'm kidding." I said as I took in the shocked expression of concern for their lives and the empty threat I laid upon them. "But they are right. Strawberries and whipped cream, that's exactly what's missing. I'll be right back." I said as I jumped down from my perch and ran out the door.

"What not even a good morning kiss? Jeeze I feel like crap.I wonder where she went still in her pajamas?" Stephen asked Georgie and Dillon after I disappeared. I ran across the hall, I knew Sonny and Carly had the items I was looking for.

"Well, the phone didn't ring so I know it's not business. Maybe she went next door for something?" Georgie was always the one to come up with the answers. All three sets of eyes watched the door as I walked back in carrying a carton of strawberries and a tub of whipped cream.

"What? I just went next door to get these." I said as walked over to the bar and set down the items of conversation. "Oh and baby?" I said as I walked over to were a bare chested Stephen was standing and placed my hands on his bare hip bones.

"Yes?" He asked as he beamed from ear to ear.

"Good morning." I said then turned to walk away with a smug expression on my face, at the fact that I didn't kiss him and he wanted me to. I could be so mean sometimes.

"I don't think so. If that's good morning then I must be having a nightmare." He said as he grabbed a hold of my wrist and pulled me back into his warm, hard, chiseled body. It was weird how perfect I fit in his arms. He was going to get me to crack, he always did.

"Then I guess it's a nightmare because I'm hungry and Georgie's breakfest is really good." I once again pulled my arm out of his and headed towards the bar.

"You know Rachel, being a guy myself, I think that what Stephen is hinting at, isa good morning kiss." Dillon said as he walked over to Georgie, picked up a strawberry and hand fed it to her. They were probably one of the most romantic teenage couple I had ever met.

"Well, Dillon I never said Iwasn't going to kiss him, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I mean, come on, he just asked me to be his girlfriend in the most romantic way so the least I could do is give him a good morning kiss. Just because I haven't doesn't mean I won't, but I wanted to do one thing first. If you'll excuse us for a moment." I rambled on as I dragged Stephen out onto the balcony. I had my own little romantic surprise for him. "Close your eyes and don't peek." I said as I took the first couple of his fingres in my hand. "You can trust me. I love you." I said as I turned around and kissed him hard.

"Mmmm." Was all he could say.

"Okay. Open your eyes." I said as I stood back against the edge of the rail, so I could see his expression.

"Oh my god. You didn't...You did. Oh god, you are the most amazing woman I have ever met." I had ordered his favorite breakfest from Tennessee. Southern omelet, with Belgian waffles, strawberries, hot sauce on the side and of course a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Something he'd only eaten in Tennessee.

"I had a little help..." I was remembering the phone call I had made last night before we went up to bed... "But I thought I'd bring a little bit of home to you. Besides, after last night I though what better way to say thank you, then this." I said as I picked up a strawberry and bit into as juice dripped down my chin.

"Baby, you are my home now and you didn't have to do this to prove anything to me. I love you. But thank you anyways." He said as he picked me up and swung me around in a happy dance. After he set me back down, I leaned into him and kisssed him so hard I don't think my feet were even touching the floor.

"You two are horrible. Why don't we have that lazy night tonight? I mean the guys can spend the night and we can all go into school together." Georgie asked us as she and Dillon joined us on the balcony.

"Sounds..." I rolled my eyes, my cell phone was going off. "Damnit!" I yelled out loud.

"Ignore it. Whoever it is will go away." Dillon said, even though we all knew that wouldn't happen. I ran to the desk beside the door and pucked up my phone.

"Corinthos." I annoying spit into the phone.

"Don't you dare be pissy with me!" Sonny's demanding and aggravated voice spilled through my ear piece of my phone.

"Sorry. What's going on?" I asked as I excused myself from the group and walked up the stairs to my office.

"Get down to the warehouse. We have a problem!" Sonny only said so much and then the phone was dead.

I hung up without a second thought. I was hurriedly throwing on a pair of jeans, a white button down long sleeve shirt, pulling my hair up, strapping my boots on, grabbing the gun from the bedside table, running down the stairs, pulling my leather jacket and motorcycle helmet from the closet. Kissing Stephen good-bye, grabbing my keys from the desk, saying I'd be back later, and running out the door.

"Well, my guess is..." Georgie started the sentence, but all three finished it. "BUSINESS." The three of the said with a hint of annoyance.

"Well I'm getting in the shower. If y'all come up with some sort of plan for what to do today you'll let me know." Stephen said as he walked up the stairs and disappeared around the corner.

"This sucks. Georgie?...Georgie?..." Dillon turned towards Georgie only to find her lost in her thoughts. "Georgie, baby? Hi. Hey... Where were you just now? What were you thinking about? You seemed so lost." Dillon said as he led her to the couch to sit down.

"Oh, nothing." She said without looking at him which he knew meant she was lying. She got up and walked back towards the terrace doors.

"Georgie I know you are lying, so please tell me what is wrong? Baby, I want to help, however in order for that to happen you need to tell me what is going on." Dillon said as he walked over to her and lifted her head so that she was now looking him in the eye.

"Oh. I am sorry. I was just thinking about my mom and dad." She started but Dillon interrupted her.

"Mac, he loves you." Dillon said slightly confused.

"Not Mac, my father. Frisco a.k.a. Andrew Jones. Dillon, he left my mom shortly after I was born. But now when I look at Stephen and Rachel." She stopped and walked around Dillon to the edge of the balcony. "I just don't want my two best friends to end up the same way they did." Georgie said as she started to cry.

"Baby, shhh. Stephen and Rachel are not your mom and dad. They truly, and you know I mean well, when I say this. They love each other and they respect each other, too much to let that happen. I'm not saying that your parents didn't love each other, what I'm saying is that this is a different world from when you were born." Dillon said as he walked over to where she was standing and wrapped his arms around herfrom behind. "Georgie, I love you. And Stephen and Rachel, they love each other." They stood there for five minutes before Dillon said, "Georgie, can we go inside, I'm freezing." I think in all the emotion and excitement of the morning, it sort of made Georgie and Dillon forget that he was only wearing a pair of sweat pants.

"Yes." Was all she said as they turned around and walked arm in arm back inside.


	14. Chapter 14

_So here we are chapter 14. I can't believe it is this long. I hope y'all are enjoying it. Thank you for the reviews. Keep them coming. Jason is a OOC in this chapter. I'm sorry but it couldn't be helped.  
_**Diclaimer: I own nothing except...Y'all know the rest. ENJOY!  
**So this picks up right where 13 left off.**

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Meanwhile across town at the warehouse; I arrived a little over fifteen minutes after Sonny called, only to find the warehouse going up in smoke. And I literally mean going up in smoke. The warehouse looked like the first bomb that droppedat Pearl Harbor.

"What the hell happened!" I asked as I approached Sonny, Jason, Lue (a guard), Johnny, David (another gaurd), and Mac at the far end of the parking lot.

"You tell me." Mac said as if he expected us to know.

"Mac, you really think we'd set fire to our own warehosue?" Jason said annoyed and pissed that Mac had the guts to even think it, let a lone say it.

"Well, gee I don't know. From what I've heard your business has bit a bit of a snag in profits. So maybe you burned the place for insurance money."

"And where didyou hear that?" I asked as I placed a hand on my hip and held my helmet in the other, pissed off beyond belief.

"Faith." He answered without thinking it through.

Faith was the one and only Faith Roscoe, an enemies wife that had long since held it against Sonny and I for her husbands fatal car accident. She couldn't ever prove that we had anything to do with it but she tried every tactic to get us thrown in jail for his murder.

"You actually believe Faith. Now that is funny." I said as I started to laugh. See the part that made it funny was that Faith was also in the business and had even been a suspect in her husband's death, later found not guilty by a jury but still it's the same as saying that I am not Sonny's sister. It's all blood, no matter who's hands its on.

"Yes. Actually I do. Just because my daughter lives with you doesn't mean I have to believe you all the time." Mac said and knew it would get under my skin just enough to set me off. But what he didn'texpect was for me to actually not say anything back which I never did.

"She is your step-daughter. And I reallycould care less if youbelieve me. But listen to what you are saying Mac. I mean come on it's Faith. Nobody can believe a word that comes out ofher venomous lips. You could be shacking up with her for all I care but I still wouldn't believe her." I knew exactly what to say to piss him off and I enjoyed the happinessit brought to me to watch him squirm.

"Now I could arrest you for saying something like that to a police officer. But for the only reason that I can come up with I'm not going to. It would break Georgie's heart. And no I'm not as you say 'shacking' up with Faith. But I do believe her more then I believe you. And that goes for all of you. If I even find our that you had anything to do with this then I will arrest you, all of you." Mac was always making empty threats of the sorts. We never took him serious because then we would look bad. We just ignored the look he gave us as he walked back to his car and got on the horn to talk to dispatch, about anything that would take his mind off of us.

"So Sonny. What do we do now?" Lue asked. He was new and so we kind of had to spell everything out for him.

"Well, Lue first don't ever say anything to that man. Unlike some other people around here, we pretend that he doesn't have any infulence over us." Sonny said as he looked at me.

"What? I like sticking it to him that his daughter lives with me. What can I say? Besides, I _love_ my job." I smiled sweetly at Sonny, and everybody else. They all knew that part of my life was pissing off the district attorney.

"That man, would like nothing else except to put this organization out of business, but we won't let that happen. So unless you want to end up behind metal bars, then you can run your mouth all you want." Jason was having his way with Lue and thoroughly enjoying it.

"Lue don't listen to him, he's just got a pool stick up his ass." I said as I smiled sweetly at Jason. "What we do for now is nothing. I'm going to make a phone call then I will be back to answer your question about where we go from here." I said as I dug my phone out of one of my pockets and punched in a few numbers.

"Prseton Fletcher's. I'm sorry nobody is home at the moment but if you leave you name and number, somebody will get back to you as soon as possible." I received this message when I called my good and PI detective.

"HEY PRESTON ANSWER THE DAMN PHONE! IT'S RACHEL. WE HAVE A PROBLEM!" I yelled into the phone. I usually did when she didn't pick up and let the answering machine receive the call. (Which she did all the time.)

I had known Preston from grade school. She and I went way back and even after she went to the good side of the law, she never declined to a friend in need. Sonny and Jason knew we could trust with anything, in the business department, she was the one personthat actually didn't hold it against usin the court of laws. She was my next door neighbor when I wasgrowing up in Maine, she now lived in New York City, working for NYPD. The one thing about Preston was that she was kind of a man user, she'd sleep with you one minutes and not know you the next. But we loved her for it and in the end it was probably a good thing that she was that way, it gave us (Sonny and I) the leverage we needed to keep her on the payroll. I'm kidding. We would never blackmail the people we loved, even if it did help protect us from the FEDS. She was the one individual that worked for the good guys but always wanted to be on the bad side of things.

"What is she up to?" Sonny asked as I rejoined the group who was in deep a conversation as to what could have possibly caused teh fire.

"Well, I wish I knew but she won't answer her phone. And I'm not going to be the one to interrupt anything that could be going on at her apartment." I said as I put the phone back in my pocket and sat down on the edge of the sidewalk. "Sonny?" I half asked, half said. "Whatdo _we _gofrom here?" I asked thesecond part with more concern for the money we were losing in profits; due to thefire.

"Well, I'll tell you what we're not going to do. We are not going to push Mac's buttons because for once in a life time he is right, what you said could easily have gotten you thrown into the metal box they call a jail cell. So for right now we wait until Preston calls back and wait for her results." Sonnysaid as he kneeled down next to me. Althought everybodythat was standing withing hearingdistance knew that neither Sonny, nor I would sleepuntil we found who had torched teh warehouse.

Five minutes later my phone interrupted a conversation I was having with Jason.

Ring...Ring...Ring...

"What!" I sort of yelled into the phone knowing I probably shouldn't but I wasn't really in the mood.

"Well, good morning to you too, sunshine." Preston Fletcher's voice filled my ear.

"Damn. What the hell took you so long? You need to get down to the warehouse NOW!" I said as I smiled knowing she was probably half way to Port Charles as we spoke. (In other words she was maybe ten minutes away.)

"I'm on my way. Don't move." It was more of a demand then anything, but when it came from her, you usually had to listen or she might kiss your ass beyond recollection.

"K." I hung up my phone then looked at the boys. "She's on her way." I said as I stoop up re-pocketed the phone and walked over to my bike.

"Damn yourself. I mean look at your ride." Lue was the type of guy that if he hadn't seen it before it became this big deal. For instance, the fact that I rode a motorcycle and hadn't killed myself yet, made him underestimate the control of women of all ages.

"Lue just because you've never seen a girl ride doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Believe me I've been riding almost three years, and I've only almost killed myself once. And let me tell you that wasn't my fault." I said as I stepped in front of him and waved a pointed finger at him. "But I will tell you this, it is probably the most fun I will ever indulge myself in. However, working in this line of business you thank god every day that you are still alive and with that comes the fun of living life by the seat of your pants everyday." I said as I laughed at the surprised look on his face that told me he really was only joking when he mentioned the bike. "Sorry." I said as I looked at Lue and nearly lost my shit, I couldn't help laughing.

Lue was this man that was six and half feet tall, two hundred ten pounds, ex-pro boxer, and he was never the type to think things through before he said anything. He was a sweetheart and even as I looked at him now I always wondered what the hell my brother saw in him, to hire the guy but I _never_ second guessed him...Okay I did but right now I couldn't help but second guess.

"RACHEL! Leave the poor man alone." Preston's voice spilled over teh sound of the fire trucks and the private conversations being held. "Damn look at this place. I thought that nothing could get worse then when the pier went but I guess I was wrong." She was talk about an explosion that had happened about a year and a half ago that took out all of Pier Seventy Two. (We had since had it rebuilt. This was our pier and damnit, that was the way it was going to stay.) Preston walked over to where Sonny and I stood. She was about five feet even, I mean she was small, but never ever tell her that, at least not to her face. You'd probably end up with a set of broken teeth. Preston was dressed in her professional/regular clothes. That usually was a pair of jeans, a button up blouse, and a pair of knee high black boots. Today thought, the attire was covered up by a long, black coat.

"Hey hun. Mac is already jumping down our throats and now he is listening to Faith. Do something." I said as I hugged her and passed her along the line to give each guy a hug and a kiss. Now, had it been any other women then Preston, the guys wives would have probably dump 'em a long time ago. But this was Preston we were talking about.

"Oh, well leave Mac to me, and come back in about two hours. By then I should have a good idea what happened." She said as she walked towards Mac and the other officers, head held high, confidence spewing from her ears.

"Alright. Gentlemen, it's been nice but I've got to get back to the penthouse and do some damage control." I said as I kissed Sonny on the cheek, turned around waved over my shoulder, pulled my helmet on, mounted my bike, started it, revved the engine for a minute and then I was gone.Little did I know that when I was on my way home something was going very wrong at the penthouse.

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AHHHHHH! Cliffhanger. 


	15. Chapter 15

So now the fun begins. Rachel does a little damage control. Okay, so Jason might be OOC. **Diclaimer: I own nothing; except...Fill in the blanks. Enjoy and please keep reviewing.**

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Between the time I had left and the time I was coming home, Faith had decided to take it upon herself to finish a job that she had botched, many times. We all knew in the back of our minds that Faith was responsible for the fire, since Mac had brought her name up.

KNOCK...KNOCK...KNOCK...

"Coming." Stephen yelled from the kitchen. He came walking out and yelled up the stairs to Georgie. "I got it don't worry." Dillon had left to go to Kelly's to get coffee for all of them, since Georgie's had since turn to mud. As he turned the door knob, the door got kicked in, forcing Stephen to step back and cover his face. "WHAT THE HELL!" He screamed at the intruder. No one, except Stephen, knowing that Georgie was at the top of the stairs, listening to the whole deal.

"Well, Sugarcakes. When your dear girlfriend is away the mice will play. So you my handsome boy are coming with me." And before Stephen had time to ask who she was, Faith had her goons jump him and drag him out the door.

Georgie had heard the commotion from behind the corner of the stairs, and once Faith had left, came down the stairs, eyes watering, shocked at what she had just witnessed. As I walked through the door, five minutes later, that is exactly what I saw. Georgie standing in the middle of the living room, tears streaming down her cheeks, dressed in blue jeans, with holes in the knees, and a white t-shirt that looked like it was probably Dillon's. (It was two sizes too big.)

"Georgie, honey, what's wrong?" I asked as I pulled her over to the couch and sat down next to her.

"Faith..." She said and then started to cry again.

"What about Faith? Did she threaten you or Dillon?" I asked as I reached behind the couch to where there was a small table and grabbed a small box of Kleenex and handed them to her.

"She...I...Stephen..." She wasn't making any sence. She wiped away the tears that were running down her face and looked up at me, as if what she was about to say, was going to kill me. "Faith was here and all I heard was that she had her goons jumps Stephen and then they left." Out of the entire sentence all I heard was Faith had Stephen. I stood up, walked over to the desk beside the door, pulled out the top drawer, pulled out the gun, ignoring the fact that I had a fully loaded gun in my ankle clip, and checked to see how many shots were still in it. One...Just one, but that was all it was going to take.

I turned around looked at Georgie and without showing any emotion said, "stay here and call Dillon. I'll be back later." I walked out the door knowing exactly where Faith was taking Stephen, I couldn't even see straight but I just had to get him back before anything bad happened. I heard steps running towards the door as I waited for the elevator, andI knew that she was going to try and stop me, maybe ask me to wait for Dillon or Jason, or even Sonny. But this was my fight and they were not going to try and stop me, lucky for me the elevator arrived before she had a chance to try and stop me.

The only thoughts I was having was that Stephen had to be okay and that I was going to be able to get to him before Faith could do any damage to him. Faith had most likely taken Stephen to Vista Point; a bluff on the north end of town, that over the looked the harbor, and held a specical place in my heart. It was the first place I saw Sonny when I came to town. She'd often take her damage up there because she knew that I was always going to look for her there. She wasn't smart in the sense that you take the person to the last place anybody would think to look, not the first. As the doors to the elevator opened I saw Sonny and Jason walking towards it probably heading up to the penthouse. I had to think fast to hide the gun in my back pocket, and plaster on a fake smile that I knew neither of them would buy, but I would at least try.

"Hey you. Where do you think you are going?" Sonny asked as I walked up to him and kissed his cheek.

"Oh, I forgot that I had some errands to run. So if you'll excuse me I need to get going before I forget what I'm going for." I said although I knew there was no way in hell I was going to forget what I was going after...Faith and Stephen.

"Are you okay? You looked like somebody just killed your best friend." Jason said and I tried to hide the fact that, that was exactly what I was afraid of.

"No..Yeah..I'm fine..Bye." I said as I ran out of the lobby and ran to where my bike was parked. I didn't need them seeing me cry.

"Jase, follow her. I think something's happened and right now is not a good time for her to get arrested." Sonny said to him as I walked out of ear shot. (Technically, no time was a good time to get arrested. But that was beside the point.)

"On it." And with that he was gone.

During the ten minute drive up to Vista Point I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going because I was concerned for Stephen. I knew he would be able to hold his own against some of the guys at school, but right now he was dealing with Faith; in other words if he tried defending himself he could wined up badly hurt or worse. Once I reached the spot in which I couldn't go any further I climbed off the bike, pulled my helmet off, placed it on the seat of the bike, pulled the gun from the back of my pants, and walked like a zombie towards the north side of the bluff. Once I walked around teh corner, I heard Jason ride up, but I didn't bother to stop walking, I wasn't in the mood to fight with him. I just wanted to get Stephen, get rid of Faith and put the whole damn thing behind me, which I usually did. Jason came running up behind me and laid a hand on my shoulder.

"The bullet in this gun wasn't meant for you but if you try and stop me from getting the man I love back, I will shoot you, without a second thought." I bluntly said, and instantly Jason took his hand off my shoulder, not even bothering to turn around forI knew he understood why I was doing what I was doing. I was protecting the man I love.

"I wasn't going to try and stop you, but I think that you need back up and that is what I am here for." Jason said as he put a comforting hand on my shoulder and spun me around. When he spun me around I just started to cry, I hadn't cried up to that point, but I guess the reality of the situation was catching up to me. I turned back around and started walking again wiping the tears away; that way Faith wouldn't know I was scared. It wouldn't be far now, just up around the bend and we would be there, face to face with Faith and hopefully Stephen. That is exactly what we found when we came upon the witch/snake (what ever the hell you want to call her) and her goons, Stephen right in the middle of them all.

"Let him go Faith." I said as I looked her in the eye, if you looked hard enugh you could almost see how cold she really was.

"No." Was all she said. Finally looking down at my hands, noticing the gun, she took one small step bacl. Not big enough for anybody to really notice, but I always paid attention to the little things people did.

"I really didn't want to use this but if I do then so be it, but you won't like the outcome of it." I said, my eyes never once left hers. I couldn't bear the thought of looking at Stephen for fear that I might lose my composure. That and I was mad I had to do this with him watching. I was slightly scared he might want out of the relationship once he saw me use a gun.

"Honey, you don't scare me." She said as she was now looking down the short barrel of a very powerful weapon. She might not let you know that she was scared, but she hated guns.

"Faith, you really shouldn't piss her off anymore then you already have. When she's pissed off then things turn ugly. I suggest you call off your guards and release Stephen, before she _accidentally_ pulls that trigger. But by the look in her eyes she would be more then willing to do the job." Jason said as I put a smile on my face and at this point I think it dawned on her that I was joking around.

"Back down." She said as she just continued to look at the gun in my hand. Her guards dropped Stephen and walked away probably thinking that I was come kind of maniac. Maybe I was, but we won't tell anybody else that. Stephen stayed where he was and never once tried to get the upper hand, which I was proud of. See males being males would have tried to get the upper hand just to impreess the lady. (Although I got to tell you something, it doesn't work for me.)

"Now I'll say it again. Let him go and never try to get to me through my friends." I said again, not letting my eyes leave hers. I referred to Stephen as a friends because if I had even said anything close to the man I love she'd try again to force me into something ugly or force meinto killing her. Both of which were never good.

"Fine. But this is not over with." She said and went to walk away, butI grabbedher arm.

"If you ever try this again. I will put this bullet in you with no problems at all." I whispered word for word in her ear so that nobody else could hear it. After I let go of her arm, she slithered away from the scene with her tail bewteen her legs. Once I was sure she was gone I ran over to Stephen who was on the ground with a pretty nasty head wound from where he'd been hit by the door. "Baby, how many fingers?" I asked as I held up four fingers and kneeled down next to him.

"Four?." He said more of a statement and a question then an actual answer but that was okay.

"Let's get him to the hospital to get that checked." I said as I looked up at Jason who was standing over us.

"I'm fine I don't need to go to the hospital." He said as he tried and yet failed to stand up on his own.

"Okay, see you're not fine and you are going to the hospital." I said and held up a hand in front of him, as if to tell him not to bother arguing with me.

"Dude, listen to her, she's right you need to go to the hospital. If not for yourself then just do it to humor her." Jason said as he helped Stephen stand up.

"Fine." Then he looked at me and smiled. "You know, you are quite the Spitfire. I don't think anybody else I know would have come after me like you did." He said as he reached out a hand for one of mine. "I love you Rachel. My very own Spitfire." Jason and I just started laughing at the nickname.

"Come on, you. Lets get you checked out." I said as we lead him towards where the bikes were parked.

An hour and a half later we were back at the penthouse, explaining what happened to Georgie and Dillon

"Georgie, it's not your fault. I told you not to worry." Stephen was saying as I set a hot mug of tea in front of her. Stephen had to have stiched in his forehead, but other then that he was going to be okay. I was still sloghtly shaken but I knew I was going to get over it. I always did. By this time it was close to seven at night and we were all wiped out, and decided to have that movie night after all. We all knew that it was going to be a long week with school and work, so that was the best option we had.


	16. Chapter 16

Here we go again...  
**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except...Fill in the rest. Keep reviewing. ENJOY!**

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By the next morning before I was even out of bed I knew that today was going to be a day from hell. We all managed to get to school without a problem, and the first two hours went nicely but once we reached the third hour of school I felt as if I had been hit by a mac truck right between my eyes.

"Baby, are you okay? You don't look so good?" Stephen whispered to me as we sat through yet another boring lecture from Mr. Moretalli on Shakespearian history.

"No." I said just as I fainted.

"Mr. Moretalli, get the nurse, we have a problem." Stephen yelled from his seat as he held my hand.

Two hours later, I woke up in all but to familiar place, General Hospital. I swear I had been in the hospital more times in the past six months, then I had been in the past nineteen years of my life. As I woke up I felt the heaviness of Stephen's head on my chest, and I heard the snoring of a man who cared so much that he had skipped the rest of the days classes just to be with me. I looked down at the handsome man I loved and I knew loved me back, so I sat watching him sleep. I remembered the first day I saw him, not the first day we talked, but the day I first say him sitting next to me.

_September 7, 2003  
There I sat daydreaming about something or maybe not even daydreaming, just not paying attention. The first day of the last year of my high school life, I was finally a senior, and I was going to milk it for all it's worth. Then something caught my eye, and I didn't know if it wasjust because I had never seen him in school or if it was the amazingly handsomeness of the man that was so new that he didn't even look up from his hands. I could remember my first day at Port Charles High School, I was so nervous that I didn't look up or even talk to anybody. But I soon got over that and I was making a name for myself within hours. Yet, at the same time I pitied the young male adult sitting there. He looked much like the puppy dog in the window of the pet shop down the road, that nobody had bought, so there he sat month after month, getting bigger and bigger till finally a little girl and her mother went in to buy him. Oh, well that's life, he'll get over it and he'll make firends_.

That was the last time I thought about helping him, yet I never did anything about it, I just assumed he had found friends. But then it hit me, the only friends he had were that of Georgie, Dillon and myself. I was such an asshole to him. I once again looked down that handsome man laying peacefully alseep and wondered why I had waited so long to introduce myself. Then I remembered, I was dating Max at the time. Okay, that was the past, 'let sleeping dogs lay.' My foster mother had always made it a point to teach my older brother Blake, my younger sister Missy and myself to leave the past in the past.

Anyways, I lifted my right hand and moved it over Stephen's head and stroked amissed-placed piece of hair out of his face. I just smiled as he moved under my touch. I loved the fact that even though Stephen and I hadn't known each other more then a couple of months, there was just something about watching him sleep that brought the sparkle in my eye back. And everybody could see it.

"Mmmmm..." He mumbled as he finally realized that somebody was playing with his hair and watching him sleep.

"Good morning Sunshine." I said with a smile as he opened his eyes and looked up at me.

"Oh my god...How are you feeling?" Stephen asked a hundred questions, as I just started laughing at hit botched attempt at appearing wide awake.

"Shut up. I'm fine. You know you snore louder then a lumber jacks saws?"I said as I got a look of udder humiliation.

"How long have you been watching me sleep?" He asked as he tried to rub the sleepiness from his sleeps.

"Maybe all of five minutes. Why aren't you in class?" I whispered as I tried to move the conversation from me to him.

"OH, NO you don't! You fainted in class. Bobbie said that your sugar count is low. She also said that it could be a sign or diabetes. Rachel what have you had to eat today?" He asked as he signaled for me to move my legs so he could sit down next to me.

"Nothing. But this has happened before to me, when I haven't eaten. I mean nobdoy in my family had diabetes." I saidas if trying to remember, yetknowing I never knew anybody from either side of myblood family. "Will you get Bobbie for me? I want to get out of here. Please baby?" I more or less was begging him to get me out of thie damnplace. He looked at me, stood up, and walked out the door without any protest to even get me to try and stay.

Once he was gone I climbed out of the bed, walked over to where my clothes were folded over the back of a chair and headed into the bathroom. Five minutes later I emerged from the bathroom in a pair of super-low boot cut jeans, a maroon, roll collared, off the shoulder, long sleeve shirt, a pair of open toe stiletto sandles, and a black and silver cowboy buckle belt. (You know the kind, where the buckle it's self is about as big around as a compact disc.) At the moment I was pulling my hair up in a high ponytail. I walked over to the table next to the door, noticing that, that was were they (the doctors), had discared my jewelry. Which consisted of several pairs of earrings, an eyebrow ring, a diamond studded belly button ring, a three tiered chain necklace, and my watch. Just as I was putting my last set of earrings in, Bobbie and Stephen walked in.

"Hey sweetheart. How are we feeling?" She asked in a way that told me she was not going to release me without a good excuse as to why I had fainted, something I couldn't explain. And yet I was so good at explaining things.

"Bobbie, I'm fine. Really. Please let me out of here. I'm sure it's because I haven't eaten anything all day long and my stress levell is through the roof. If you want I'll come back tomorrow, but please release me before I go crazy laying in this bed." I was laying back on the bed because I knew that if I hadn't she probably would've made me stay for the night, but we all know I don't do hospitals. I looked up at her with those say puppy eyes, that I did so well.

"Hold on a minute." She said as she turned and walked out the door.

"Where is she going?" I asked as I tried to walk out of the room behind her, only to have Stephen push me back down to a sitting position on the bed.

"And just where do you think you are going?" He asked as he sat down next to me on the bed.

"Well, I'm leaving this hell hole. That's what I'm doing. And you can't stop me." I said as I started pacing the room. "I may love you, but right now I'm not listening to you." I bluntly said not realizing how harsh the statement had actually come out. Then I looked at the handsome man next to me as he droppedn my hand from his. "Baby, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it how it sounded. I'm just frustrated that's all. Please don't be mad at me. I'm sorry, I'm taking it out on you." I said as I lifted his chin so I could look at him in the eyes. I softly whispered, "I love you," as I leaned into kiss him. When we pulled apart I looked at him and saw something I never again thought I'd see on this man gorgeous face...A lone tear sliding carefully down his cheek. "Baby?" I softly said, "what's wrong? I'm going to be okay. I'm so sorry to have said what I did. I didn't mean it." I said as I brushed my thumb over his cheek to wipe away the tear.

"I know you didn't mean it. It just scared me that's all, when you started talking to me as if I was an enemy. It's just I thought the worst when you fainted at school. I don't know?" He said mostly confused then anything.

"Baby, I'm sorry about the attitude. Oh, that was never my intention." I said as I placed my hands on his face, causing him to smile. He got up and aimlessly walked around the room trying to make sense of the current goings on.

"I love you so much. I just don't know what I would have done if I had lost you." He said as he came back over to the bed, sat down, grabbed my hand in his, looked me in the eye, smiled and leaned into to kiss me. However, Bobbie picked the wrong time to walk back in.

"I'm sorry." She said as she smiled at us. "I just need you to sign here, and then you are free to go. But I do want to see you back here in the morning." She said as she handed me a clipboard with my release papers on it.

"Okay." I said as I signed the papers and handed then back to here. "I'm so out of here." I said as I stood up and walked out in the hallway and started talking to one of the nurses.

"I'll make sure she's back here in the morning." Stephen said as they both started laughing at as I started acting bubbly.

"Bobbie?" Stephen asked as he threw his back in my direction. "What really caused her to faint? And please don't say low sugar." He said as he lead her out to the hallway.

"Well, right now the test aren't showing anything irregular. Tony and I wish she'd stay over night, but Sonny is the same way. The test we do tomorrow will hopefully explain the problem. Just make sure she comes back tomorrow." Bobbie finished as I came walking over towards where they stood talking.

"You ready babe? I need a pizza and I know there is a frozen one in the freezer." I said as I ignored the pleading eyes of Bobbie to stay the night."

"All right babe." He leaned in and whispered in my ear, "I have something I want to give you." I slightly blushed only imaging what he had in store for me at home.

"I'll see you two in the morning and take care." Bobbie said as she walked away down the hall and disappeared.

"And what might you have to give me?" I asked as I grabbed a hold of his hand and dragged him towards a waiting elevator car.

"Oh behave would you! Besides, we might end that way, but right now lets get you home first." He said as he kissed me hard and pushed the down button, not once leaving the kiss.


	17. Chapter 17

Okay so lets see how fast I can get this one out as well.  
**Diclaimer: I own nothing except...Y'all know the rest. Review and ENJOY!**

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Ten minutes later we were back at the penthouse, still in the same kiss, coming up for air only once.

"Rach, wait a minute." Stephen said as he pulled away from the kiss. "I know I am ready, but are you sure? I mean you're just out of the hospital. I love you and I'll wait forever for you. But we don't have to make love tonight, we can wait..." I answered his question when I grabbed a hold of his face and kissed him with all my strength. "Well, I guess that's my answer." He said as we both started laughing. Okay so the moment had been broken but I still was with him and that was all that mattered.

"Stephen, come over here and sit down." I said as I grabbed a hold of his left hand and lead him towards the sofa to sit down. He sat down with his back against the armrest, one leg bent up against the back cushion, and then indicated for me to sit between his legs and get comfortable. I sat back against his chest as he wrapped his arms around me from behind.

"Rachel, like I said at the hospital I have something for you. But first you have to let me talk and you can't interrupt. Okay?" I looked back at his handsome face and shock my head that I'd just listen. "Okay, here it goes. You know how much I love you and I know that you love me. I was going to wait till your birthday, but after what happened at school today, it made me realize that if I wait any longer then it may be too late." He and I started to chuckle at the was he had stated the comment; more or less I was starting to cry. "I'll just go ahead and say it, Rachel Alexandra Corinthos, I love you and I would like nothing more then for you to say what I want to hear; but I won't get ahead of myself." I turned around so I was looking directly in his deep green eyes. "Will you marry me?" He asked as I just looked at him unsure if he had really asked me to marry him.

"What?" I asked as I stood up and started walking around the room. "I'm only nineteen; I turn twenty in two months. We haven't even graduated." I said more out of shock then anything. The thing is that we would be graduating in a little over a month.

"Rach, come sit back down. I'm not done." I looked back at him and then down to his out streched hand, I decided that I probably should listen to him, I placed my hand in his and let him lead me back to my position between his legs. "Baby you are my world. I don't know if I could go a mere two hours without thinking of you or seeing you. My sister says it's not healthy, but you know what? I love you and I can't wait to move in with you. Don't worry, I'm not trying to push. I can wait two more weeks." He said as I pulled his arm around my middle and leaned back against him, so my head was on his right shoulder. "See, when I wake up in the morning you are the first thing I think about, and the last before I fall asleep. And most of the time I dream of your laughter and your smile. I love you Rachel, and I'm not afraid to scream it from the rooftops of every building in the state of New York and all of New England. When I first saw you that day in class, I truly kissed my heart and soul away, without any hope of getting it back. I know that probably sounds absolutely ridiculous for a young twenty year old male." He said as we both started laughing uncontrollably. "So, okay, I know you're not ready but we could have a long engagement if you'd like. So I'll ask again, Rachel Alexandra Corinthos, will you marry me?" He finished as he turned me around so he was looking me in my eyes so he could see my reaction.

"Yes." I whispered as if I was surprised by my own answer.

"You will?" He asked just as surprised and yet excited about the fact that I had said yes.

"Yes." I said again just as softly as the first time.

"But you just said in a less then obvious way that you weren't ready. What happened in five minutes time?" Stephen asked as he tried to wipe the silly little smile off his face, only to fail.

"Well, I guess that if I truly love. Which I do. I shouldn't let something so little as not being ready get in the way of being happy. Plus, I never really said I wasn't ready, I wa sjust stessing over school. Besides, I couldn't think of another man to spend the rest of my life with." I said as I kissed him. As we were kissing I felt him playing with something behind my back.

"Just what are you playing with?" I half said, half asked in between kisses and reached behind my back to his hand and started to pout when he snatched it out of my reach.

"You know you're pretty sexy when you pout like that. This old thing." He said as he pulled out of the kiss, with a foolish grin plastered on his face.

"What old thing?" I asked again. He was going to make me work for it I just knew it.

"I figured that since you said yes, you should probably wear one of these." He said as I just about lost my breath at how beautiful the two cart diamond, sterling silver engagement ring was. It had diamonds all the way around the band and a one and a half cart square diamond in the middle.

"Oh dear lord!" I exclaimed as I let my reaction to the rest of my speaking.

"Do you like it?" Stephen asked as he smiled as he knew what my answer was going to be.

"What do you think? But Baby, it's too expensive. Where did you get it?" I asked as I blushed. But something in the back of my mind told me that I should've recognized the old look of the ring, but I couldn't figure out where I had seen it before.

"I think that yes you like it. When you see Sonny tonight for dinner ask him, and he'll explain the reason behidn it." He said as he smiled as he cleared the tears that were falling down my cheek.

"Okay." I said as I shyly kissed him and looked down at his shacking hands.

"Can I put it on you?" He asked as if embarrassed to be asking.

"Of course you...you..." I couldn't think of a foolish name quick enough, I wa sthinking about a wedding I had to start planning.

As he slipped the ring on my finger Georgie and Dillon came running in the door, probably wanting to make sure I was okay.

"AHHHHHHHHHH! Are you okay?" Georgie screamed as she hugged me and sat down on the couch.

"Yea, G. I'm fine, but Bobbie wants me back in there tomorrow, so they can run more tests. How awas the rest of the school day?" I asked as I started to move my hand so that when the light hit the diamond just right it would blind Georgie.

"Oh it was just fine...Except she wouldn't stop bugging me to skip the last classes to see you." Dillon said and I just looked between Georgie and Dillon making sure I understood what he said. Usually it was Dillon and I skipping and her saying no.

"I just wanted to make sure you were...Damn can somebody close the blinds. I can't see a damn thing." I moved my hand so it wasn't blinding her. I looked up at Dillon and noticed that he had seen the ring but was waiting to say anything so that Georgie could be the first to say something.

"Georgie do you want something to drink?" I asked as I got up and walked towards the kitchen.

"Yea, water will be just fine. Thanks." She said as Dillon sat down in the chair next to the couch.

"Hey Stephen, congrats on the Bio test, you got a B+. And you know I could use a lesson if you're willing to help." Dillon saidand of course Stephenand I knew of the double meaning behind the congrats.

"Here ya go." I said as I handed Georgie the glass and got the expression I was looking for.

"OH MY GOD. What is that...that thing?" She asked as I walked over to Stephen's lap, sat down andstartedlaughing.

"This thing. Oh it's nothing." I said smugly and took a sip of tea from my mug.

"Oh don't pull that bull shit with me. That's an engagement ring." She said slightly upset, but mostly happy.

"Yes. It is an ENGAGEMENT RING!" I said as we both stood up and started jumping up and down with excitement.

"You two are definitely best friends." Dillon and Stephen started laughing as we stopped, put our hands on our hips and pouted at the boys.

"Oh really. And how abotu you guys. Y'all have you hand shacks and grunts. We can't be girly for once in a life time, I meanhow many times do ya get engaged?" I asked as I walked over to Stephen and sat down again. "What do y'all want for dinner? I mean Sonny, Carly, Jason, they all are coming over but what do we want?" I asked as I took another sip of tea from my cup.

Dinner went well, no problems and nobody opened their mouths about the hospital; which was a good thing because then Sonny would have scolded me for not being more careful. As dinner was going on I asked Sonny about the ring and I got a full surprise, when Sonny told me the truth. Apparently the ring was my great-grandmother's , then my grandmother's and then my mother's, engagement ring. After dinner Sonny, Carly and all of the otehrs had left (which was all of twenty minutes ago,) I was picking up the dining room, when there was a knock on the door.

"Got it!" I yelled up the stairs and in to the kitchen. "Coming!" I yelled as I walked towards the door.

"Yes?" I asked as I opened the door.

"Well, Joey it's about damn time you opened the door. I was starting to wonder if you were trying to ignore it." The young woman at the door said in a thick New York accent, as she walked into the room.

"Brooklyn? What the hell are you doing here?" I asked as I hugged the young woman and started smiling at the nickname I had long since lost.

"Well, Joey. I thought I'd come visit my dad. And his...err my family." She said as Dillon, Georgie and Stephen joined us in the living room.

Brooklyn was our age, and yet there were days you'd think she was twice her age. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind. She stands five feet six inches, and she was waist length, wavy, black hair with blonde streaks through out it. Her dad is Ned Ashton a.k.a Dillon's older brother, which in other words makes Brooklyn his niece. And yet they were the same age, it was kind of odd, let alone being weird.

"Uncle Dillon, it's good to see ya again, and Georgie how are we today?" She said as she grabbed a hold of one of his shoulder and pulled him into a hug, causing him to start laughing. Then she grabbed Georgie and hugged her.

"Hey Rach, what's with the nickname?" Stephen asked as he approached me. I started laughing as Brooklyn made eyes at him.

"Joey, who's the hottie?" She asked as I wrapped my arms around Stephen.

"Hands off. He's taken." Georgie said as I shoved my engagement ring in her face.

"Damn child." She said as she was now making eyes at thering, Georgie and Brooklyn had been friends since anybodycould remember, and Brooklyn knew that Georgie was just being Georgie. Over protective. And not being a bitch, which was nothing new.

"Brooke, this is Stephen. Honey this is Brooklyn. And I'll explain the nickname if you'll all sit down." I said as we all sat down randomly around the room. Dillon and Georgie on the couch, Brooklyn in the chair, and Stepehn with me in his lap sat in the E-Z chair. " The nickname comes from my real middle name. My given name at birth was Rachel Alexandra Josephine Holden. But one I entered foster care, Sonny had the agency change the last name. Brooklyn and I met one day when her mom and her came into the agency, looking to adopt. She and I were going to be foster sistes, but the Stabbler's nabbed me two days before Lois' adoption was final. But we always promised we'd stay intouch, if we didn't become sisters. Which we kept our word. Dillon," I started as I looked at him directly, "ned never told you because Lois never told him." I finished knowing that Georgie, Dillon and Stephen were going to have a hundred questions to ask. Even if I didn't want to answer all of them, they would ask.

"Baby. Why did Sonny have your name changed?" Stephen asked as he rubbed my shoulders.

"Because, he didn't want my grandparents findingme. He was afraid that they'd never let me see him again. And he was right. My grandparents where just like my father, mean and abusive. I didn't blame him either, I knew it was for my oen good and when I got old enough he told me." I answered as I leaned back against him. "But after we get married, I won't have to worry about them, and I can legally change my name to Rachel Alexandra Josephine Corinthos-Crump." I said as I looked at the surprised faces of my friends and of course Stephen. In the back of my mind I knew I was never going to change my last name back to Holden forI knew that in my heart I was a Corinthos and that wasn't going to change, even if my life did.

"You'd really do that for me?" Stephen asked as the others looked on. I may of loved this man but there were definitely things about me he needed to learn. "I mean you're the Mafia princess of Port Charles and Crump just doesn't sound Mafia enough." We all laughed at the Mafia princess nickname.

"Of courseI would. I love you." I said as I turned around and kissed him. "As a child I always told myself, and anybody that would listen, I'd take my husbands last name when I got married. Besides, it's not like I planne don using it during business hours, sorry babe. But I was just going to use it for the legal stuff and at home with y'all." When I turned around to look at him, and apologize for not having the guys at work call me Mrs. Crump, I was being eyeballed by the famous sad puppy face. I just started laughing and tickling him on the side. They all just started laughing at the snorts Stephen as letting out between laughter. I just had to re-join in at the funnieness of all of my friends and I guess you could call them my family, laughing at an uncontrollable volume. Sonny and his family across the hall could probably hear us, but that's okay, he loved me...err us. Boy life was great. Here I sat on my soon-to-be husband's lap laughing with all of my friends. I thought as I continued laughing with everybody.

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_Okay so I am sorry that it took me so long to update I was losing my mind with finishing a mod of school and having finals. Sorry. Review and there should be another chapter updated withing a couple of days. Thanks_


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: You all know the saying I own nothing except...Fill it in. Review and ENJOY!**  
So I couldn't come up with a reason that Rachel could possibly be sick except from not eating so that part is going to be unresolved. Sorry. Okay so on with it.  
(So pretend that the whole Sam/Sonny/Carly/Jax thing never happened and there is no baby. Oh and imagine that Carly and Sam actually get along.)

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Two days as fate would have it, we were all bound for trouble when Sonny called me to come over to the penthouse, when nobody was around, in other words during school. (It was going to be a miracle if I graduated.) 

"Sonny, what the hell is going on?" I asked as I walked aimlessly around the penthouse.

"Jason's on his way. When hegets here then I'll answer your question." No more had Sonny finished the sentence did the biker-best friend of mine come stomping through the door. Very pissed off. I might add.

"This better be damn good." He said as he walked over to Sonny's liquor bar, poured himself a glass of brandy, guzzled it down, poured another then sat down on the black leather couch.

"Enzo, please come here?" Sonny asked and said as the sixty-ish looking guard came walking around the corner carrying a file folder.

"Here you are sir." He may have been older and wiser then all of us combined, but he still treated us like we were his age.

"Thank you Enzo, that'll be all." Sonny said as the older gentleman walked back out of the room.

"Sonny, get to the point. I skipped class to be here. I have to get back before anybody notices." I said as I marched over to where Sonny stood holding the file folder. I knew I was never going to make it back to school, but that was okay. I knew Stephen would cover for me.

"Good God you two are impatient. But I'll get to the point. Yesterday morning I received a phone call from a one Miss Sage Alcazar. Lorenzo's niece. What I hold in my hand is her background info. We have a severe problem. She wants payback for what happened to her uncle. We have to make sure that Courtney is not left alone. Actually we have to make sure nobody is left alone without a guard. So Jase, I need you to not leave her side..." Sonny stopped as Jason threw his glass across the room, causing it to shatter when it hit the closed door.

"No. I hate to be the bearer of more bad news but I'm not with your sister anymore. She left me for that Aussie boy. So, NO I won't watch Courtney day and night." I stood up as if somebody had yelled fire in a crowded theater.

"Jase, are you okay?" I asked as I placed a soft hand on his shoulder causing him to shutter under the touch.

Jasper "Jax" Jacks was his name and not somebody that any part of the Corinthos family wanted anything to do with, except now Courtney. He is a Australian born business tycoon and had once been a family friend except that he did something so wrong, we won't even mention because it was far to painful for any one of us to talk about.

"No, I'm not fine. What is this about Sage? I thought we took care of this problem when we got back from the island." Jason said changing the subject, to something other than himself.

"Well, so did I but apparently..." Sonny was interrupted again by the knocking on the door.

KNOCK...KNOCK...KNOCK...

"WHAT!" Jason yelled as he swung open the door with all he had.

"I'm sorry I'll come back later." Sam said as she turned to get back on the elevator.

"I'm sorry, Sam." Jason said apologetically as he walked her back into the penthouse and closed the door.

"Jason, go wait across the hall for me." I said demandingly, knowing that if I didn't say it harshly enough he wouldn't wait for me.

"Fine." He said as he opened the door walked out and slammed the door.

SLAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! The sound seemed to echo through out the enire building all ten floors.

"Hi, Sam. Sonny we'll continue this later." I said as I opened the door to walk out when he said:

"Sam is going to help us." I looked at him, like somebody had thrown a brick at me and it had hit me in the head.

"I'm what?" Sam asked knowing that Sonny, Jason and I never asked outsiders of our section of the mob to help with our problems.

"Go talk to Jason and I'll explain what I need her to do." Sonny said as he re-opened the door for me.

"Okay." I said as I walked out, leaving the deafening silence between them.

I carefully opened the door to my penthouse expecting there to be nothing left of the glasses and vases I had around the house. I opened the door and found a very clean house and a very pissed off Jason cursing himself out for giving his heart away.

"Jason?" I softly asked.

"Rachel, I'm sorry I just don't get it." He said as he spologized for his behavior and turned around to look at me.

"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?" I yelled at him. I walked over to where he stood in front of the fire place. "You never get this frustrated with women let alone, another women and a man." I said as I whacked his shoulder with enought momentum to push him back against the mantle.

"That's just it. She's not just another women. Rachel I fell in love with her and I never intended for it to happen." He said as he picked up a glass. I ran over to him, pulled the glass out of his hand and put it back down. My reaction caused him to look at me with bugged out eyes at the thought of what he almost did with the glass.

"Jason, come sit down." I said as I grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the plush couch. "Listen I know what you mean when you say it wasn't suppose to happen. Remember Stephen and I and how you found out. Believe me I know. But Jason you can't let her get to you or she'll win, knowing that she caused you pain. I know Courtney didn't mean to hurt you, but she told me not to long ago that she wasn't happy with your work. She just didn't know how to tell you." I said as I got this look that told me I should have kept my mouth shut.

"Well, if she can just move on like that, with him, then so can I." He said as he stood up and walked out of the penthosue straight for Sonny's.

"Jase wait, what are you doing?" I asked as I followed him to Sonny's, not bothering to close my penthouse door.

"Sonny, is Sam still here?" Jason asked as he walked through the door not realizing that Sam was standing behind Sonny.

"I'm right here Jase, what can I do for you?" She asked as she stepped out from behind Sonny. Her small frame causing Jason to take notice of the bigger size of her bust line.

"This." Jason said as she walked over to her, grabbed her face and kissed her hard.

"Jason!" Sam asked confused after he pulled away from the kiss.

"There. I feel just fine. Thank you Sam." He said as he turned around and walked out into the hallway and pushed the down button for the elevator.

The three of us stood there shocked, and Sam stood slightly confused as to way the man of any woman's dream had just kissed her so hard, that right now she couldn't feel her own feet touching the ground.

"What the hell just happened?" Sonny asked as he tried so hard to understand what was going through Jason's mind.

"I'll go find out." I said as I turned around and walked/ran out to the hallway only to catch the doors closing with Jason and a smug expression on his face, behind it. "Damnit!" I swore as I walked back into the penthosue. "I missed him. But I think I know why he did this." I said as I closed the door behind me and went to sit on the couch next to Sam, which was where she had decided to plante herself so she could feel like there was something supporting her.

"Well so much for the uneventfulness of Sage Alcazar." Sonny said as he walked over to the bar.

"Sam please don't take this the wrong way, but Jason kissed you because of Courtney. See she dumped him for Jax. And when I told him that she was unhappy with his work he flipped. He said that if she could move on then so could he." I said as I looked at Sam whose expression had yet to change.

"What did that blonde Aussie do to her?" Sonny rhetorically asked. "Sage can wait, for the time being." Sonny said as he walked over to me and pulled me up from the couch yanking me towards the door to talk privately. "Find him now, before he does something dumb." He said as he opened the door for me and pushed me out, telling me on the way that he'd make sure that Sam got home safe.

Twenty minutes later I pulled up beside, Jason's bike park outside of Jake's, the local bar in town. He use to live above the bar and I guess now he would probably move back in since there was no roon at the penthouse and since he wasn't living with Courtney. He had at one time lived with me in the penthouse, however, we got sick of each other, but we still loved each other. As I walked in I was welcomed with the stiff smell of stale smoke and unhealthy smell of beer. I spotted Jase sitting a lone at table in the corner with a fresh beer in his hand and three empty bottles on the table in front of him. I walked over acknowledging Jake, the owner, who waved back, pointing her finger in Jason's direction.

"Can I sit down?" I asked as pulled out teh chair opposite of him. I waved my hand in the air towards Jake who understood that I was wanting a beer for me and a glass of water for Jase. She brought them over then patted Jason on the back indicating that he was going to okay.

"Rachel, what am I doing? I kissed Sam, who probably doesn't get why and now Sonny had you following me." Jason slurred as he guzzled what was left of his beer now. I had known Jason for years but I had never seen him get this drunk.

"Jason. You're only human. You do have feelings, Sonny and I know that. But we are concerned for you. We love you and we want you happy. And Sam does know why. I kind of had to tell them. Come on, Jake still has your room, why don't we get you up there and laid down." I said as I looked up and met eyes with Jake who nodded her head, understanding that I was asking about the room. "I'll be right back." I said as I stood up and walked over to Jake and got the keys from her. "Alright lets get you up to bed." I said as he stood up only to become very tippie, and needing help to stand and walk.

Ten minutes later I was back downstairs, out the door and on the phone to Sonny explaining where Jason was and that he was going to have one hell of a headache in the morning or whenever he woke up. By the time I got back to Sonny's, it was close to seven and I realized that there wasn't any way that I wasn't going to be put in detention for a couple of days, even a week. Sam was still there and we all decided together to get back together tomorrow or whenever Jason was feeling less hung over.

"Sam, I'll walk you out." I said as Michel came running out of the elevator, smiling and enjoying himself immensely.

"Hi Sam, Auntie Rachel." He said as he hugged me and walked into the penthouse, Carly right behind him.

"Hey, you two." She said as she walked/ran to keep up with her son.

"Hi." We both said.

"Hey Rach, listen I know why Jason kissed me, but do you think he would mind if I went to check on him?" Sam asked after we had gotten into the elevator.

"You know, I think he'd like that." I said as I looked at her. "He's at Jake's. Room twelve. When you walk in look for Jake behind the bar, and if she asks why you're there, just tell her I sent you, and she'll give you a key." I finished as the doors opened and she stepped off and headed through the lobby. "Oh and Sam, " I yelled through the lobby, "call me once you get home, so I can tell Sonny you got home safely." I finished as I caught her wave over her shulder and the doors closed. In other words she would and she'd let me know who Jason was at the same time.

"God, Jaosn is going to kill me for this." I said aloud as I thought about the look Sam was going to get once she arrived at Jake's. One of the things about Jason, was that he hated when Carly and I tried to set him up on blind dates. He even hated when we asked if there was anything we could do, to make his life better and every time he'd say 'just stay out of my private life.' Then he'd walk away. This time I think it'll be different, Sam's different and she'll be good for him.


	19. Chapter 19

So I am so sorry that it took me forever to get this chapter up it's just a lot has been happening so please forgive me for that. So here we go. I also added another story that kinda goes a long with Rachel except it's about Josephina. It's called What in a Name. So If you like this I bet you will like that one, it's just a one part story I think unless I can come up with more to write about.  
**Disclaimer: I own noting except...Fill in the blank. Enjoy and review please!  
**So here we go on with the story!  
Sorry but this chapter is going to be short. I know I am a bitch I make y'all wait weeks for a new chapter then it's short I'm sorry.

* * *

The thought soon left my memory, as the elevator doors opened and I stepped out. Then it hit me, Sonny still hadn't told me about the plan for Sage, but that would have to wait now, Carly and Michel were home and that met that I had to wait till later in the week. I walked into my penthouse, and soon realized that somebody was home, they must of come up on the other elevator when I was going down. ( okay so this is kind of a few hours ahead of the last chapter.) 

"Hey honey." I said as I walked into the living room and walked over to where he stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. " How was school?" I asked as I kissed him, and wrapped my arms around him his middle.

"It was okay, except that Mr. Moretalli kept asking where you were adn why you weren't there. It was a pain to keep telling everybody that you were home sick, when they all knew you were taking care of business. I'm tired and frustrated that I had to lie for you." He sais as he walked around me towards the stairs and started heading up the stairs.

"Stephen. Listen I'm sorry, I never intented for you to lie for me. I kept telling Sonny that I had to get back, but something came up and I know I should have called you and let you know what was going on." I said as I walked over to where he stood on teh second stair. " I wish you didn't have to lie for me. I make myself sick sometimes when I think about everything you do for me and then I go and do something like this. I start to think god the man I love, loves me back and he shouldn't have to deal with things that happen in my life. Yet, here you are, standing in my house, I mean our soon to be house. I love you and Iwill make this up to you. I promise." I said as I pulled him down the two stairs and over to the couch and sat him down.

"Baby, I know. I'm just frustrated because that group of girls was digging in on you andI couldn't seem to stop them. I love you. I just wish that everybody could understand that I love you and that I want you and not them. I actually have a great idea. Let's get married tonight. We'll fly down to Atlantic City and get married there. I mean, that way everybody will understand how much we mean to each other." He said as he stood up and ran over to the phone and started dialing the number for the family jet.

"Hey...Stephen...Hey, baby...Stop." I said as I ran over to the table next to the door and grabbed the phone out of his hands and placed it back on the receiver. "We shouldn't have to get married just to prove a point and believe me I would marry you in a heart beat if it meant we'd be happy for the rest of our lives. But baby, I want to be with you, because I'm happy with you andnot to prove a point to those girls who I couldn't give a rats ass about. I will marry you but only when I'm ready and right now there is a problem that needs major yaking care of and getting married would be a bad idea right now. Besides, Atlantic City is always going to be there when we decide the time is right." I said as we started laughing together. See the joke was that we both wanted a small wedding and to us the best way to do that was to get married in Atlantic City. No family around.

"Alright babe, I'm going to bed, we have school tomorrow, you coming up or are you going to play supper woman again?" He asked as I started smiling remembering the day that I came to his rescue from Faith.

"No baby. I'm going to do some work on the computer then I'll be up for the night.." I said as he kissed me good night and headed up the stairs to bed while I pulled out the laptop and startedpunching in some numbers and names and came up with a big hint as to what Sage had up her sleeve.

Four hours later, I had a whole lot of answers and a very large headache from looking at the screen. I slammed the screen down and started walking up the stairs when the front dooropened and of course I went into over drive only to start laughing as I looked at Dillon and Georgie walkingin the door.

"You two are late. Don't you know that bed time is ten not one?" And the three of usjust started laughing at the attitude I was giving them. We all know I was full of hot air. "Good night." I siad as I headed back up the stairs to bed. I knewtomorrow was going to be another day of searching for answers and helping Jason come out of his druncken state. Oh well, I'd get out of schoolagain, that was fine because Sonny always made sure that the teachers excused me from that days worth of work.

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Like I said I'm sorry this one is short. The next one is longer I promise but I have no idea when I will be able to post it so stay tuned for that.


	20. Author

Hey Y'all

So real quick author's note. I am so sorry that I haven't updates No Questions Asked No questions Answered but I have been very busy with classes and such. I promise though I will get it up and going again as soon as i find time to type the rest of it out. Please just bear with me while I get my focus back on that story.

Thank you for putting up with me and waiting for this.

The Redneck from the North


	21. Chapter 21

The next morning as I had predicted, Sonny, Sam, and I got Jason out of bed even with his headache. We knew we had to take care of Sage, that was number one priority, even in his state of mind Jason knew that. I however, was not going to question the reason behind the looks that Sam and Jason were giving each other I wasn't about to ask what had happened last night at Jake's, I really didn't want to know. That was their business not mine and Jason would share it with me if he wanted me to know.

"Okay. So I already told Sonny and now I'll tell you guys, I found out that Sage really isn't as clever as she would like us to think she is. She left a paper trail of money, and it's been switching hands from her uncle's over seas account to unknown accounts in Europe, and South America." I said as I walked over to the kitchen table and placed the file folder, I had been holding on to since I had gotten to Sonny's place earlier in the morning, down.

"Well, if the accounts are unknown than how do we trace it?' Same asked as I looked at her and started to laugh, forgetting for a moment that she had never worked the part of mob we had connections to.

"I'm sorry Sam I forgot for a moment that you haven't worked this part of the neighborhood before. What we have to do is place a trap for her. Which I'm guessing is why Sonny said you were going to help us. That way if she slips we can catch her." I said as I looked at Sonny and Jason and made sure that I was explaining just enough to help her but not enough to make her ask questions about our section of the mob.

"Okay. But what exactly am I doing?" She asked as the four of us moved over to the couch and sat down, Jason and Sam on one end, Sonny on the other and me in the matching chair.

"You my dear are going to be our bait." Sonny said as he looked at me and just started to laugh, when I made a face that said, I didn't like the idea anymore then she did. "We are going to play right into Sage's hand, and then when she least expects it we attack, leaving her asking what the hell happened."

"Sonny that still doesn't explain what it is she is going to be doing." I said as I looked at Jason and Sam, I swear something had happened last night that they weren't telling us.

"I'm getting there." He said and to me it sounded like he had no idea what exactly she was going to do but he had made a point to include her. She knew too much not to be included.

"Sonny can I talk to you for a minute?" Jason asked as he stood up and walked into the kitchen so that Sam and I couldn't hear what they were talking about.

"Hey, Sam? If you don't mind me asking, what happened last night?" I asked as her face turned bright red. "Okay, never mind, that is all the answer I need." I said as the two of us started laughing.

"Rachel, he wasn't drunk when I got there; hung over, yes, but not drunk. We knew what we were doing. And I'll say this, we'll do it again tonight. Rach, he's so amazing." I interrupted her.

"Okay, stop there. I don't need to know these things." I said as I made a face that told her I just didn't need to nor want to know about her night with my best friend.

"Sorry. What I was going to say was I think I'm going to enjoy working with you three. I know I don't have to tell you how great a person Jason is, but he is just amazing." Once again I gave her that look of drop the subject; we started laughing as the guys came back in carry four beers.

"So what did you two talk about?" Sonny asked as Sam and I shared goofy looks and started laughing again.

"Hey, Jase, I've heard you're a pretty amazing man. Is it true?" I got the reaction I was looking for. For a mobster with a heart of stone, watching him turn six shades of red was damn funny.

"You promised, until we were ready." Jason said as he looked at Sam, Sonny and finally me. I couldn't help but start laughing again.

"She didn't have to. I knew she went to Jake's last night. I kind of knew that something would happen, but other then that I just love watching you blush. Oh and before you kill me, just remember that I love you and you love me." I finished as Sam, Sonny and I just laughed and didn't stop until Jason joined in.

KNOCK...KNOCK....KNOCK...

"Got it." I said as I jumped up from the chair and ran the few steps to the door. "Yes?" I asked as I opened the door to find the girl of conversation standing hands on her hips. "Sage what can we help you with?" I asked as she walked around me and into the penthouse.

"This." She stated then shot once, just missing my heart, but hitting my shoulder. (The same shoulder her uncle had hit.) With that she was gone and once again I was staring at a river of my own blood running down my arm.

"Rachel!" Sonny yelled as the three of them watched me drop holding my shoulder. "Jase call 9-1-1." Jason had no sooner put the phone down when he scooped me up, ignoring the fact that the EMT's would be there within minutes.

"Sam call Stephen. Tell him to meet us at the hospital ASAP. Just don't tell him why." Jason said as they stepped with me in arm onto the elevator.

The thing was that I was watching all of it happen, yet it wasn't me. It was an out of body experience; you only feel when you watch your life pass before your eyes. The weird part was that it wasn't like I hadn't been shot before, remember the island? Somehow though, this time seemed a lot different then that time. This time it felt like it was going to be the last time I was going to be seeing the people I loved the most, I knew it wasn't but this time I wasn't protecting people, I was just answering the door, something I did on a daily basis.


	22. Chapter 22

I must have lost all sense of where I was because the next thing I knew I was in the ER waking up after surgery. I could feel my eyes fluttering open and seeing Jason, Sam, Sonny, Carly, Stephen, Brooklyn, Dillon, Georgie, staring back at me. All of whom had smiled and stains of dried tears on their faces.

"Did you get her?" Were the first words out of my mouth. Truly it was the only thing I cared about, catching Sage, that bitch had just meet her match.

"No, but Johnny is on it. He'll call if something comes up." Sonny said as he stepped forward and placed a kiss on my cheek.

"Alright everybody out she needs her rest." Bobbie said as she came walking into the room.

"But Bobbie….." Jason said only for Bobbie to shove a flat out hand in his face that told him he needed to be quite.

"But Momma, we can't go." Carly told her mother. That's right Bobbie (Barbara Jean Spencer) was Carly's mother.

"Oh but you have to, because if you don't she won't be able to get any rest. And if she doesn't get any rest she won't be doing much of anything for anybody." She said and they all walked out of the room leaving Bobbie, Stephen and myself to talk. "Say good-bye Stephen, you can come back tomorrow morning." She said and walked out to the nurses' station leaving Stephen looking at me with pure unconditional love in his eyes.

"Baby, stay. Please Bobbie won't be back in for a couple of hours, besides, I'll be able to sleep with you here." I said as I pleaded with him to stay.

"Fine but if I get caught it's your fault." He said as he pulled a chair closer to the bed, sat down and watched me fall asleep.

Three hours later I woke up to Bobbie and Tony Jones (her ex-husband, current friend, and doctor.); standing over Stephen and I arguing with him to let him stay.

"Please let him stay. I can't sleep without him near me." I making them all much aware that I was awake.

"But it's against hospital policy to let visitors stay past hours." Tony stated as he checked my vitals.

"Please Tony, I'll even pay you, but please let him stay. Besides, I've been asleep the whole time he was here, just think if he's not here, I can make your work a living hell." I said as sweetly as I could.

"Okay." I knew it was going to be easy. Tony liked to be able to work in quite and he knew that I would and could make it hell on earth for him if I didn't let Stephen stay.

"Thank you." I said as I smiled up at Stephen as Bobbie and Tony just rolled their eyes and walked out.

The next day I woke up to a heavy lump on my stomach, I reached over and ran my hand through Stephen's hair, causing him to wake up.

"Morning Angel, how's that shoulder of yours?" He asked as I shifted to get to a position that was a little bit more comfortable.

"Sore, but at least I get to go home." I said as he sat at the end of my bed and put his left hand on my right knee.

"Well at least Sage won't be a problem anymore." He casually said before he thought it through.

"WHAT?!?" I half yelled, half asked as I sat straight up in the bed nearly knocking him off the bed.

"Oh I wasn't supposed to say that." He said as he started pacing the room.

"Stephen, why won't I have to worry about Sage? And before you say ask Sonny and Jason, I am asking the man I love. So please give me a straight answer." I said as I climbed out of bed and walked over to where he stood, I pleased my right hand on his shoulder and turned him around so he was looking at me.

"Because she left the country after she shot you. Please promise me you won't go after her?" He said as he pulled me into a hug, being careful of the now bandaged arm.

"I promise I won't go after her, but you have to understand that if she comes back, I have to go after her." I said as I pulled back from the hug and kissed the side of his face.

Two days later I was sitting on my couch watching TV with an ice pack on my shoulder, trying to ignore the sharp shooting pain running through my body.

"How are you feeling babe?" Stephen asked as he walked through the front door carrying a take out back, he placed it on the table in front of me and kissed me.

"I'm fine. How was work?" I asked and knew that he had seen me flinch when he sat down.

"Work was good, but right now I am concerned about you. Rachel, please don't tell me you are fine when I know you aren't. We are supposed to be getting married sometimes and I'd like to think that you could trust me enough to tell me when you are in pain. So honestly how do you feel?" He asked as he pulled me closer to him body with my back against his chest.

"First off I do trust you; secondly my shoulder hurts like hell." I said as a lone tear slid down my faced and fell on his arm. He carefully pulled me onto his lap and just gently swayed us back and forth, trying to ease the stress and frustration out of my body.

"Rachel, its' okay, it will be okay. We'll just stay this way until you feel better. I love you and I want to know whenever you are in pain. But please promise me you won't try and push me away, we'll always take care of each other for always. That's my promise to you right now, to never make you feel like you have to deal with pain by yourself. I love you with everything I have and will ever have. Rachel Corinthos I promise to love, honor, and cherish you till death do us part." I was now sitting next to my soon to be husband, I was also in tears this man really did love me.

"Marry me in six weeks." I whispered into his chest.

"What?!?"

"Marry me in six weeks." I said again as I looked up at him.

"Seriously? Because, babe, I swear I'm okay with waiting until you are ready."

"I'm serious I want to marry you on July 4th. I mean you already have your vows written and I already have a dress, which I've had since a couple of days after you proposed. What more could we possible have to do? I want to be bound together forever, why wait?" I rambled on as he kissed me long and hard.

"Shut up." He said playfully yet continued to kiss me.

"Doing that." I said as I grinned into the kiss.

"Six weeks; if we have everything why wait that long? He asked as he pulled back and brushed a thumb across my cheek.

"Because July 4th is Independence Day and even though I'm giving up a form of my independence, I'm gaining the independence of being your wife. So if it's okay I want to marry you on July 4th." I said as he kissed me again. It was settled July 4th was going to be my wedding day.


	23. Chapter 23

Ring….Ring….Ring

"Hello?" Stephen answered the phone from the kitchen two days later.

"Rachel please."

"Hold on a minute." I heard him say as he walked into the living room and towards me on the couch as I was looking through a text book that I need to finish reading for a final.

"Hello?" I asked as I watched Stephen walked back towards the kitchen to finish dinner for Georgie, Dillon and Brooklyn who was back in town and staying with us for a couple of days.

"Hey darling I was wondering if I could come over for dinner?" I heard Tony's voice through the receiver and smiled.

"You better believe that you can, but you are being warned it is going to be teenagers galore. Brooklyn, Dillon, Georgie, Stephen and myself. Oh and Stephen is cookin'. Are you sure you want to come over now?" I asked and heard him laugh and knew without a doubt that tonight I was going to ask him to walk me down the aisle.

"Well at least it's not you cooking and that's all that matters to me." He said with a hardy laugh.

"Alright we'll see you in a little while." I said and hung up with a laugh.

"Babe, Tony is coming for dinner as well." I yelled into the kitchen.

"He does know that it's just going to be us right?" He asked back through the hallway.

"Yeah, he knows and he said as long as you were the one cooking then he's good to go." I said as I heard him laugh, it was a sound I didn't want to forget anytime soon. "It's not that funny." I said as I laughed with him as Georgie, Dillon, and Brooklyn came walking through the front door, laughing over something they were talking about.

"Well, that is a sight we haven't seen in a long time." Brooklyn said and walked over to the couch and sat down next to me and picked up my text book I had forgotten about.

"Yeah, I hope you guys don't mind but Tony is going to be joining us for dinner?" I said and watched as Stephen walked out of the kitchen and towards the group of us.

"Now babe you might want to tell them the reason that Tony wanted dinner tonight." He said and placed a kiss on the side of my head.

"He said he'd be glad to come as long as Stephen was cooking and not any of us." I said and we all laughed. This was a feeling I didn't want to let go of any time soon.

CRASH…………….

I picked up my head and looked around; the window in the terrace door was shattered on the living room floor.

"What the hell?" I heard Stephen say as we all looked over towards the window.

"You guys okay?" I asked as I looked at my friends and at Stephen.

"Yeah, we're fine, but what is going on?" I heard Georgie ask.

"I don't know but sit tight nobody move I am going to call Sonny and Jason."

"You won't have to." Sonny said as he, Carly, Milo (guard), Jason, and Mike came walking through the door. "My god what happened we heard the crash clear across the hall?"

"I don't know and now I am plain scared." I said and they all knew that if I was scared that meant I also didn't know how to protect them anymore. Me, being scared never happened but when it did, it meant only one thing….. We were about to enable a MOB WAR and a big one at that. Whoever had just attacked my home and my family was about to deal with the ramifications of dealing with a mob princess. This is what I did; I asked little questions and got little to no answers in return, in the mob you shoot first asked later.

"Ahhhh…. Rachel this one might actually be my fault." I looked over in the direction of the voice and found that it belonged to Stephen.

"What do you mean?" I asked as we all walked out into the hallway and over to Sonny's that way people could clean the glass up and put a new window in.

"Well, I might have accidentally said something to somebody about you. But you have to understand that I didn't know who they were until now. Please don't be mad at me. I was just excited you know, we are planning a wedding and I just was talking to some guy about it and I must have mentioned your name because he started acting funny and not quite knowing what to say." Wow he could talk fast when he knew that something he did could possible put our friends in danger without trying.

"Breath, babe. It's okay, everybody it okay, just tell me who you talked to and maybe I can help figure out who he is." I said as I sat on his lap on Sonny's couch.

"His name was Ruiz I know that much but other then that I can't remember his first name." My face must have dropped about four colors because with concern in his voice, he asked, "Rachel, who is he?"

"Sonny, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked and pointed towards the kitchen; he and Jason followed me in and shut the door.

"Rachel, what's wrong you look like you have seen a ghost?" Sonny asked and proceeded to get me a glass of water to hopefully bring the color back to my face.

"Sonny, its Manny." I said and that was all it took for the two of them to know that we were dealing with a different form of Lorenzo, we were dealing with a rat eating, dog calling, psychopath.

"We'll deal with it." I heard Jason say and then the three of us walked back out into the living room to face my friends and family.

"Come on you guys lets go." I said as I walked out and towards the door.

"Where? What's going where are we going?" They all asked at once.

"We are going to stay at the Port Charles Hotel until the window is fixed. I can protect you guys better there." I said and I knew that I had a blank look on my face.


	24. Chapter 24

"Rachel? Babe, hold on a sec….. Where are you going? Look at me damnit!" Stephen yelled when we were out in the hall…. I looked at him but what he saw was not what he was expecting… "Okay so I know you are mad at me but please whatever you do, don't push me away. Not right now."

"I'm not pushing you away, I am scared out of my mind, and when I get scared I shut down so that is what I am doing. Just give me some time and I will be fine and I won't be so empty." I said and placed a hand on his cheek to make him understand that I wasn't really mad at him I just needed some time to clear things up. Hopefully this time I would be able to nail Manny to the wall and not have him come back and hunt my family… Stephen was right we were planning a wedding and I needed to be thinking about that not going after this crazy nut that couldn't just leave my family alone…

"MAC!" I yelled as I walked into the PCPD.

"Rachel. What is the issue that has you causing a scene at the police department?" Mac asked as he walked out and calmly pulled me into his office where I could sit down and not cause a scene.

"I have some information I would be willing to let you in on. However, you can't use it to put my family behind bars." I said and waited all the while watching Mac's face to see his reaction.

"Rachel, you know by now that I can't promise you that." He said and leaned against his desk like he expected me to react any differently then a smug smile…

"Well then, I can always tell the DA about our deal. You know the deal we have that makes sure your girls are okay and you lose information that could send me to prison for the rest of my life." I said and knew full well that Mac wouldn't want that. The police department was most of his life except Robin, Maxie, and Georgie. His niece and two daughters. They all happen to be my friends and family…

"Okay, so what kind of information do you have?" He asked as he realized he was in a losing battle with me on this one.. I would often play the protection card just to get Mac to lay off.

"Manny Ruiz is alive and terrorizing my family. I need you to figure out a way to get him out of the way." I stood up and gave one last look at Mac and walked out… And just to screw with him I caused a scene on my way out…

"Babe, you home?' I yelled into the room as I walked back into the hotel room. No answer well some how that didn't surprise me, since I walked out on him when I left. I wandered around the hotel room for a few minutes before I decided I needed to keep my mind off of what had happened… I walked out the door and got on the elevator and waited while the elevator took its sweet time to arrive. As I was walking out the lobby I caught eye of an odd scene going on. At a far table in the corner sat Robin Scorpio, Mac's niece, with a man I had never seen, a handsome yet mysterious looking man. Oh what did I care I was about to married. I decided I should say hi to Robin and make sure that I held up my end of my deal with Mac…

"Hi, Robin;" I said as I walked over and stood next to the table.

"Rachel, oh my; I haven't seen you in a couple of months how are you?' You see Robin had just returned from Paris only a few days earlier.

"I am good I just wanted to say hello and tell you that I am getting married." I said as I held out my engagement ring for her to see…

"Oh, Rachel that is great." She said as she gave me a hug. "Rachel I would like you to meet somebody. Rachel Corinthos this is Patrick Drake; he is a doctor at General Hospital and a friend of mine from Paris. Patrick I would like you to meet the one woman in my life that can look at you and know your whole story with out you tell her anything." She said as he stood up and shock my hand.

"Nice to meet you Rachel Corinthos, what is it you do for work in this town?" I looked at Robin and she and I laughed.

"Well Dr. Drake when you figured it out then maybe I might tell you.. I will see you around Robin call me and we can get together for lunch sometime.. We really need to catch up." I said as I waved and walked away knowing that I had left yet another man dumbfounded by my remarks on what I did for work… Okay Rachel, lets see if we can't find Stephen and apologize for earlier I thought as I slid on my motorcycle and sped away.

"Sonny I swear I didn't know who he was or what he wanted with your family I would never purposely put Rachel or you in that position…" I heard as I walked through the front door of Sonny's apartment. "I love your sister and I would never want anything to happen to her, I plan to marry her in a couple of months. I am so sorry." I decided I needed to hear what Sonny was going to say so I stayed hided and eavesdropped on the conversation.

"I know you that you had nothing to do with this. Listen you need to understand something about my sister. She hates when the people she loves are put in danger and tonight is proof that you aren't safe; you are entering into living and loving somebody from a very dangerous world.. I know my sister loves you with all of her heart, in fact I have never seen my sister so in love before. She has a tendency to push the people she loves away that way they don't get hurt or worse, so just understand that when she comes back here and she will, be prepared for her to look at you like there is hurt in her eyes. She wants you to believe that she is mad at you and that she doesn't want anything to do with you, she is trying to act tough so that you will walk away and not look back. She loves you too much to watch you get hurt. If it takes everything she has she will protect you, Georgie, Dillon, and Brooklyn it's just what she does.. Don't let her. You listening to me don't let her push you away. Let her know that you are in it for the long haul. Remind her that you asked her to marry you knowing who she was and what she did for work. You know that what she does is dangerous, but that you love her because she is who she is and not for what she does." I stood in the shadows of Sonny's living room in tears, my brother was defending my love for Stephen. He had never defended my love for any of my other boyfriends in fact most of the time he told them to run as fast as they could in the opposite direction.

"Sonny, I do love your sister more then words can describe. I just am not sure how I can prove that to her. She has already started to push me away. I am not going anywhere you must understand that. I don't scare that easily. I want to marry her and if she let me I would marry her tonight, I know that she won't let me. I love her and would do anything for her except this I am not walking away no matter what she says." I couldn't hold my tears back any longer they came like flood gates opening. I snuck back out of the apartment I couldn't let them know I was there.


	25. Author Note

Okay so here is the deal… I wanted to publish as much of the story as I could. However, I have not finished the story in it's whole it could be a while until I can add another chapter. I have started it, but with working and the holidays it could be after the New Year until I can add again. So if I don't get a chance everybody have a Happy Holidays and I will have a new chapter up as soon as possible.


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